Chapter 31

Chapter 31

" T ake a deep breath,"

Fey drew in a deep lungful of air and held it. The Med Witch beside her pressed the flat of her palm against Fey's back and nodded almost absently, feeling the air inside her.

"Good, that's good. Okay, breathe out."

Fey exhaled noisily. She'd endured almost an hour of poking and prodding and was quickly reaching her limit. It wasn't the Med Witch's fault, though it was an effort not to snap at her to hurry it up. Having a stranger touch her, run their hands over Fey's wounds and weak points, made her skin crawl. And this was the same Witch who had seen her immediately after she'd been pulled from the river, the Witch who had seen Fey at her most broken and vulnerable.

Something about that—knowing this stranger had held Fey's life in her hands—made her feel weak in a way she wasn't used to. A way she didn't like.

It was a relief when the Witch finally stepped back and clasped her hands together.

"Well," she told Fey with a practiced but comforting smile. "The good news is you're almost completely healed. No scars from the fire, and the bones are mending nicely. It's a miracle, considering how badly you were hurt."

"How much longer will I be like… this ?" Fey gestured to her body on the bed. She'd lost a lot of muscle mass and standing even for a few minutes at a time was exhausting. She'd spent three weeks stuck in bed, and if she didn't start training again soon, she was going to lose her mind.

"That's the bad news," the Med Witch told her with a sigh. "You lost a lot of power healing yourself, and you need to work to build your power reserves back up."

"I didn't heal myself," Fey insisted. "I don't know any healing magic."

" You might not, but your body does," the Witch insisted. "Our elements aren't just something we control—it's not a switch you can turn on and off. It's a part of you. Whether you made the choice or not, your power started to heal you the moment you got hurt. But losing your health sigil and taking so much damage?" She shook her head. "Anyone else would have died. All of my medical experience is telling me you should have died. You must have a remarkable power reservoir to draw from to recover from the wounds you sustained as quickly as you have."

Fey sighed, letting her head fall back against the pillows behind her.

"So, how do I refill this power reservoir? How do I get better? "

The Med Witch smiled. "You eat . No more of these medicinal soups your friends seem insistent on feeding you, no more watered-down juice, no more light meals. Your power had to draw heavily on your body to fuel that healing, and you've lost a lot of muscle. You need to rebuild that mass, so—consider this your excuse to eat whatever you want, as much as you want, for the next few weeks until you get that mass back."

"Whatever I want?" Fey asked with a smirk.

"Anything. You want rice? Eat an entire pot. Chocolate? Eat your weight in it, if you can. Power requires fuel, and the stronger you are, the more fuel you'll burn throughout the day, just keeping yourself alive. You were probably underweight before, and you were only using a portion of your power every day. Now? You burned through a lot of calories to keep yourself from dying, and you're still running a deficit. Eat."

"And can I start exercising again?"

"Absolutely. You can start today if you want. But be patient with yourself. Even light exercise is going to be too much for you until you build that muscle mass back, so take lots of breaks during those first few days. And eat ."

Joy beamed at her and Fey from where she stood watching in the bedroom doorway. "We can do that. Thank you, again, for everything. You brought our sister back to us, and we'll never forget that." The Med Witch nodded and gathered her things together.

While Joy showed the Witch out, the two of them chatting about Fey's progress, Fey maneuvered her way to the edge of the bed. She stood, ignoring the dizziness that swept over her, and walked out of her room and to the kitchen on shaky legs.

She had lost a lot of muscle, and her body felt all sorts of wrong. Her arms and legs felt like spindly appendages that could barely keep her upright.

"The Med Witch says you need to make me breakfast," Fey told Willow as she entered the kitchen. Willow was standing at the sink, a novelty mug full of coffee cupped in her hands. "And ice cream. I need a lot of ice cream. Those were her orders."

"Well, if the Med Witch says so…" Willow shot her a playful grin and bounced over to the icebox. She began to pull ingredients out, piling things on the countertop. Eggs, ham, mushrooms, peppers, cheese. "I make a mean bacon and vegetable omelet, Fey."

Fey sank into a chair at the kitchen table, smiling. "I'm sure it's delicious, sister."

"I didn't say it was delicious. I said it was mean ."

The front door clicked open, and a few moments later Joy joined them, pulling up a chair to sit beside Fey. She looked exhausted.

They all were.

They must have felt it through their shared mark. Felt every wound, every injury Fey had endured. And in the hours before they found her, the hours that she floated down the river, her body broken and dying, what had that been like for them?

"Any word from Lilith?" Fey asked. After storming off the other day, their sister hadn't returned.

Joy shook her head. "She just needs time, Fey. You know what she's like… she'll burn herself out in a day or so and be back here like nothing ever happened." Joy placed a comforting hand on Fey's. "Trust me. I've known Lilith a long time—the whole time I've been a Blade. She just needs to vent, and then she'll be back before you know it."

Joy was right, as always.

Lilith returned a few hours later, her arms loaded with enough food to feed the entire Queen's army.

"I got us pizzas," Lilith announced, setting the massive stack of pizza boxes on the coffee table and dropping onto the couch beside Fey.

After enduring a full plate of Willow's bacon and vegetable omelet—which had been doused in hot sauce and was very, very mean —they had retired to the living room, all three of them, to watch bad TV and relax. Fey couldn't stand the idea of spending another second in bed, so even though she was exhausted, she had refused to leave the couch. Joy had found a soft, knitted blanket from somewhere in the apartment and brought it to her, and Fey had used it to create a blanket cocoon, wrapping herself in the luxuriously soft fabric and taking up far more space on the couch than was necessary.

"Ooh!" squealed Willow, leaning forward to flip one of the pizza boxes open. She grabbed a slice and settled back on the couch, wriggling in pleasure.

Lilith made no move to grab any pizza for herself, but when Fey took a paper plate and loaded it with everything that looked good, she shuffled herself just back enough on the couch so Fey could lean against her shoulder while she ate.

This was the closest Lilith would ever get to apologizing, Fey knew. And it was enough. Fey smiled, leaning back into the couch and resting her head against Lilith's shoulder as she chewed a slice of pizza .

Apology accepted .

They spent the next hour eating pizza, flipping through the channels for mindless TV, and chatting. At some point Fey drifted off to sleep, still exhausted from the trauma her body had gone through, still healing.