Magic and Decay by Rachel Higginson Page B

had each other again.
    “ Eden, that was you?”
Reagan’s question cut through our happy reunion.
    I lifted my head but didn’t pull away from Ryder.
    Eden sat on the ground with her legs curled to the
side and one arm propping her up. Kiran crouched at
her side with a protective hand on her shoulder.
    She looked exhausted.
    The blue smoke I’d walked through pooled around her
body and seemed to play against her skin.
    More Magic?
    Eden nodded at Reagan’s question. “That was me,” she
rasped.
    Kiran stood up and swept his
wife into his arms. “It took everything out of her,” he explained. Her head
dropped to his shoulder, and her eyes drifted shut. “She isn’t used to healing
other species, er , humans. Even when she heals our
people she tires easily. But this was… that was an extraordinary circumstance.”
    I met his uniquely blue eyes and hoped my authenticity
could be seen in my expression. “Thank you,” I told them both, although I
thought Eden might be asleep by now.
    Her breathing had evened out and she didn’t twitch or
move at all in his hands.
    “You’re alive. That’s what matters.” Kiran’s grave voice held a truth I didn’t want to argue
with right now. Or ever.
    Ryder squeezed me against his chest again and
whispered something I didn’t understand into my ear. I pulled back just
slightly so I could look him in the eye and ask him what he said, but Kiran started speaking again before I could form the words.
    “We have to move,” Kiran commanded. “Now. With Eden so weak, I won’t be able to
hold the force-field for long. If we don’t make a run for it this second, we
won’t be able to. And this time, Eden won’t be able to save any of us.”
    Well, damn. That was not good.
    We turned at once to move through the Zombie horde.
Ryder took my hand and held it tight, refusing to let go no matter how tight
the space became.
    Before, when Eden and Kiran were both working the Magic, they could push apart the Zombies to make a path
for us to move on. The most Kiran was able to create
was a bubble of Magic that encompassed all of us. He had to push it into the
pressing Zombies until they were forced out of the way.
    We moved much more slowly this way, and I started to
feel the sharp pinpricks of fear as they stabbed at my spine.
    I didn’t want to go through that again. Especially if
there wouldn’t be a cure this time. That had been the worst feeling of my life.
I would do anything to avoid
suffering through the horrible effects of the infection.
    Like making sure the Zombie finished the job and
didn’t leave me to rot into a monster.
    The least a guy could do was finish the job. Even if that meant a very slow, painful, agonizing
death.
    “I’m completely out of ammo,” Reagan told us.
    “And I don’t have much left,” Hendrix confirmed.
    Well, great.
    “What about the car?” I asked. “If you don’t have much
Magic left, will you be able to get it running? Or keep it running?”
    Kiran walked behind me, but
close enough that I felt how chilled Eden’s body was whenever he bumped her
into me accidently. I knew she was an Immortal, no matter how weird that was.
And I promised myself she would be okay if we could just get out of this dumb
situation I’d caused, but I didn’t really know.
    “Did Eden know she would be out of commission after
she used the, uh, smoke?” Hendrix asked as we pushed forward.
    “She did,” Kiran confirmed
with that crisp accent of his.
    Hendrix made a disagreeable sound in the back of his
throat. “Did she have to use so much of it?”
    Kiran didn’t say anything
for a long time, and I wondered if he planned to ignore Hendrix completely. But
then he finally said, “Eden has always been comfortable with taking big risks.
They usually pay off for her.”
    I watched Hendrix shoot a look at Reagan. “Are all
women like that?”
    I wanted to protest, but Ryder beat me to it. “Apparently. It must be a female thing to act first,