“Thank you, you guys. Let’s regroup and meet back here tomorrow? I was so close this time. We can get it soon.”
I refused to let their apprehension get me down. I smiled at Cassandra and waved to the rest of the witches who had stopped what they were doing to watch me.
“Blair, you really need to drink water and eat something before you leave,” Cassandra said.
I smiled and grabbed an apple, pulling the apartment door closed behind me.
Once out of Cassandra’s apartment my feet automatically took me down the stairs and onto the street. The buzz of New York City surrounded me as I melted into the throng of people walking down the sidewalk. I stuck the apple in my mouth, holding it with my teeth, and pulled on a headband to keep my short hair off my neck. It was only April, but the heatwave of the last week had made the weather miserable.
I continued to munch my apple as I made my way down the familiar streets and alleyways. A man in a suit ran into me, knocking the last of the apple out of my hand as he hurried down the street. He grunted and moved on without offering an apology. My typical angry words welled up inside my throat, then dissipated. I didn’t have the energy to bother today.
Instead, I glared at his back as he hopped onto a flying carpet waiting on the corner. The driver grabbed the tassels on each end and steered the carpet up over the heads of everyone and sped on down the street. He pulled it to the left to avoid a broomstick that was carrying a witch in the opposite direction. I kicked the apple core that had fallen out of my hands with vigor. It rolled to the edge of the street near one of the storm sewers. A large, scaled paw crept out of the sewer and grabbed the core. A nearby maintenance worker prodded me in the arm with the wand he was using to make the trash in the nearby cans disappear.
“Don’t feed the sewer gators,” he told me disapprovingly. “Next time use a can.”
I rolled my eyes at him and continued on down the sidewalk. All too soon, I came to the familiar brick building. I paused before pulling the door open and going inside.
The stark white floors and walls greeted me as I entered. The stillness of the hospital settled over me. A few nurses moved here and there. They all wore dark green scrubs. A few had wands tucked behind their ears. I saw another with a necklace of healing stones around her neck. I nodded to the ones I recognized as I passed. It seemed like a quiet day. There was only the low murmuring of doctors and nurses talking and the occasional beeping of medical machines.
A quick ride in the elevator and a walk down a hallway later, I was standing outside room 206. I paused at the door. Going in was a little harder each time. The sound of a cough from down the hallway made me jump, breaking me out of my stupor, and I walked in.
Soren lay in his hospital bed like he did every day. His eyes were closed and his hands were by his side. There was no movement except for the even rise and fall of his chest. He had IVs in one arm and a monitor on the other. There were electrodes on his forehead. Computer screens around the bed monitored every vital sign.
I walked all the way into the room, passing the dying flowers well-wishers had sent when Soren was first admitted with barely a glance. The petals had all fallen, and the stems were brittle now, but I couldn’t bring myself to throw them away. I walked over to the foot of the bed and grabbed his chart, flipping through it to see what the doctor had written for today.
There it was like always: no change. I flipped the chart shut with disgust. Tears welled up in my eyes. So often it felt like they waited there, waiting to spring into action at a moment’s notice. I gripped the foot of the bed with both hands until my knuckles were white.
Once I semi had it together, I pulled up a chair as close to the side of the bed as I could get it. I sat down and swung my legs over the arm of the chair, tucking them up into the seat with me. For a few minutes I sat in silence.
“I almost found you today, Soren.”
As always, my words sounded loud and hollow in the stark white room. I kept talking anyway.
“I know you’re in there. I wish I knew how to find you. Maybe you could tell me how to help, how to get you back here, with me.”
I stopped. A hard lump was starting in my throat, and if I kept going, I would soon be a weeping mess.
A knock at the door distracted me. I paused for a moment and waited. The nurses just knocked once and came on in. Instead, there was another knock. I scooted my chair back to open the door. Cassandra waited with flowers and a drink.
“Cassie.” I smiled at my friend. “Come on in.”
I ushered her into the room.
“I brought flowers. I figured the ones I sent a few weeks ago had died by now.”
Cassandra gave the dead stems still in the vase on the windowsill a long glance before turning back.
“How are you feeling?”
“I'm not sure. I was so close to finding him, Cass. But now everything seems so muddled and scattered. But I can rally and we can do it again soon. I was so close.”
“Blair—” Cassandra started. She sat down in front of me and grasped my hands in
