Page 19 (1/2)

NINETEEN

IT’S HARD TO SAY WHAT finally , doing what I believed best protected Lissa But hiding her cutting did nothing to protect her I hadn’t been able to make her stop - and really, I noondered if it was my fault she’d ever started None of this had happened until she healed me in the accident What if she’d left me injured? Maybe I would have recovered Maybe she would be all right today

I stayed in the clinic while Diet Alberta He hadn’t hesitated for a second when I told hier, and he’d left i after that hted on while I waited When he finally returned with an unconscious Lissa, a flurry arose at the clinic, one everyone wanted me kept out of She had lost a lot of blood, and while they had a feeder on hand right away, rousing her to enough consciousness to drink proved difficult It wasn’t until the ht that soh for me to visit

"Is it true?" she asked when I walked into the rooed I knew they’d put a lot of blood back into her, but she still looked pale to me "They said it was you You told theet too close "Lissyou cut yourself worse than you ever have And after healingwith Christianyou couldn’t handle it You needed help"

She closed her eyes "Christian You know about that Of course you do You know about everything"

"I’m sorry I just wanted to help"

"What happened to what Ms Karp said? About keeping it all secret?"

"She was talking about the other stuff I don’t think she’d want you to keep cutting yourself"

"Did you tell the;other stuff’?"

I shook my head "Not yet"

She turned towardto"

"I have to You can heal other peoplebut it’s killing you"

"I healed you"

"I would have been okay eventually The ankle would have healed It’s not worth what it does to you And I think I kno it startedwhen you first healed me"

I explained my revelation about the accident and how all of her powers and depression had started after that I also pointed out how our bond had forh I didn’t fully understand why yet

"I don’t knohat’s going on, but this is beyond us We need someone’s help"

"They’ll take me away," she said flatly "Like Ms Karp"

"I think they’ll try to help you They were all really worried Liss, I’ this for you I just want you to be okay"

She turned away from me "Get out, Rose"

I did

They released her the nexton the condition that she’d have to come back for daily visits to the counselor Di her on some sort offan of pills, but I’d cheer on anything that would help her

Unfortunately, some sophomore had been in the clinic for an asthma attack He’d seen her come in with Dimitri and Alberta He didn’t knohy she’d been ad people in his hall what he’d seen They then told others at breakfast By lunch, all the upperclassht clinic visit

Andto me

Just like that, whatever social headway I’d ht condeions, and people behaved accordingly

The whole day, I walked around the Acadehost People watched and occasionally spoke to me, but few made much more effort than that They followed Lissa’s lead, i her silence No one was openly mean to me - they probably didn’t want to risk it in case she and I patched things up Still, I heard "blood whore" whispered here and there when so

Mason would have welcoht not have been so nice I didn’t want to be the cause of any fights between him and them So I chose Natalie instead

"I heard Lissa tried to run away again, and you stopped her," Natalie said No one had a clue why she’d been in the clinic yet I hoped it stayed that way

Running away? Where in the world had that come from? "Why would she do that?"

"I don’t know" She lowered her voice "Why’d she leave before? It’s just what I heard"

That story raged on as the day passed, as did all sorts of runancy and abortion theories were eternally popular Sootten Victor’s disease No one even ca our last class as quickly as possible, I was astonished when Mia started walking toward me

"What do you want?" I deirl"

"You sure have an attitude for soht now"

"As opposed to you?" I asked Re what Christian had said, I did feel a little sorry for her That guilt disappeared after I took one look at her face She ht have been a victi look about her, very different from the desperate and depressed one from the other day She hadn’t stayed beaten after what Andre had done to her - if that was even true, and I believed it was - and I doubted she would with Lissa either Mia was a survivor

"She got rid of you, and you’re too high and ed out "Don’t you want to get back at her?"

"Are you more psycho than usual? She’sme?"

Mia tsked "She doesn’t act like it Co big, isn’t it? She really is pregnant, right? Tell me what it is"

"Go away"

"If you tell et Jesse and Ralf to say theyand spun around to face her Scared, she took a few steps backward She must have recalled some of my past threats of physical violence

"I already know they made it all up, because I didn’t do any of it And if you try to turnto be about you bleeding, because I’ll have ripped your throat out!"

My voice grew louder with each word until I practically shouted Mia stepped back further, clearly terrified

"You really are crazy No wonder she dropped you" She shrugged "Whatever I’ll find out what’s going on without you"

When the dance cao It had sounded stupid to begin with, and I’d only been interested in going to the after-parties anyway But without Lissa, I wasn’t likely to gain ad - and failing - to do soh the bond, I felt all sorts of mixed emotions from her, particularly anxiety and exciteuy you didn’t really like