The steady beeping of machines was the only response. That was expected, especially for a patient who had been suffering from the Stillness for over four decades, but River’s heart still cracked.
That ache grew worse as she moved through the room and checked her patient’s vitals. Mrs. Valois’s chapped lips, more grey than pink, were partially open. Up close, her skin had an ashen tinge that had River’s stomach twisting.
The slow, inconsistent rise and fall of the earth fae’s chest was the only sign that she was still alive.
For now.
Like a thief, the Stillness waited in the shadows to steal that last bit of life.
River movedthrough her duties robotically over the next few hours. She walked down the hall, finding her patients in their beds, tucked beneath their stark white sheets.
Every few minutes, she popped her head into Mrs. Valois’s room. Time and again, the scene remained the same. Unseeing eyes stared at the speckled white ceiling. Machines chirped. The aroma of illness lingered.
Foreboding settled in River’s chest, growing heavier by the hour.
By the time her first break rolled around, she was a mess of emotions. Her magic was swirling, and she’d been repeating Eliza’s mantra for the last hour.
My magic does not control me. It is a tool that I’ve been given. I control it.
The problem was that her magic didn’t feel like a tool right now. It didn’t feel like something she managed. It felt like a force waiting to take over her.
River didn’t grab any food. She couldn’t stomach anything, and besides, Doctor Hudson was treating a patient on the sixth floor right now, so she couldn’t leave. Refilling her reusable water bottle, she raced to the first unoccupied patient room she could find. Shutting the door, she locked it with one hand and pulled out her phone with the other. Unlocking it with the press of her thumb, she hit the first number on her speed dial.
It rang twice while she propped up the device on the bedside table and settled into a seat.
“Hello? River?” A light was turned on, illuminating Ryker’s face on the screen. He was on the couch in a worn grey T-shirt, his pointed fae ears poking out of his ruffled dark brown hair. “What’s wrong?”
She should’ve known that the moment she called, he would sense that something was off. Her brother had always been overly perceptive, which was probably why he excelled as a captain in the military.
“Why does something have to be wrong?” River tried to infuse her voice with a lightness she didn’t feel in her soul. Opening her palm, she drew out threads of water, letting them flow around her fingers. The action soothed both her and her magic. “Can’t a girl just want to talk to her brother?”
She wiggled her fingers, and the water split into three tiny streams, weaving around her digits like translucent ribbons.
Ryker raised a knowing brow. “You can always talk to me, you know that.”
“Why do I sense there’s abutcoming?”
“Because there is.” He leaned forward, resting his forearms on his knees and looking the kind of concerned only bigbrothers were able to achieve. “What happened, River? Is it your magic? Do you need me to come to Lakewater? Brynleigh’s out, but I can call her, and she can shadow us?—”
“No, it’s fine.” River shook her head, and the water froze around her fingers. Tiny bubbles filled each icy vine. They were delicate—a single touch would snap them in half. “I don’t want you to uproot everything to come help me.”
Not again. Ryker had already sacrificed so much for River. After the Incident, he’d put his life on hold while he and Tertia had tried fixing things as best as possible. It wasn’t easy, considering the devastation that River had sown. Ryker had entered a self-imposed isolation for several years, only emerging from it to partake in the Choosing two years ago.
“What do you need, Shortie?”
Tugging her lip ring through her teeth, River unfroze the water around her hands. She twisted her fingers, sending the liquid into the bathroom, where it disappeared with a splash.
“I just needed to talk to you.” She sucked in a breath, trying to gather her thoughts.
Ryker didn’t push her. He leaned back, waiting for her to continue.
“There’s a patient tonight, and she’s… she has the Stillness.” River scrubbed a hand over her face.
A beat passed, and Ryker’s eyes softened. “Oh.”
“She’s an earth fae, like Atlas.” One of Ryker’s two best friends, Atlas Mossgrove, had been around for most of River’s life. The professor was kind, if not a little strange, for the way he sometimes spoke about the land. “But also… not like Atlas, because the disease…”
“It’s eaten away at her.” Ryker raked his left hand through his hair, his wedding ring glinting. “That must be difficult.”