Obsidian Wings by Laken Cane Read Free Book Online Page B

forward to kiss her cheek. “So stop worrying. I’ll
be okay. We all will.”
    “Yeah.”
    Raze came back into the room, his cell in his hand. His eyes
were a little too wide. “Lex wants to see you.”
    Rune’s heart jumped. “She’s alert?”
    “Yes. She is. Let’s go.”
    She drove to the clinic with Raze riding her ass, breaking
every speed limit posted. Lex had come back to them. Maybe not for long, but
right then, she was back.
    When Rune and Raze arrived at the clinic, they leaped from
their cars.
    And just as suddenly, they froze.
    Lex waited for them, her hands clasped behind her back. She
wore a hospital gown and a pair of socks, and her wild, black hair lay in sad
tangles around her shoulders.
    Her eyes danced, and best of all, her body vibrated.
    Lex was back.
    “Hello,” she said.
    Rune put a hand to her stomach and looked at Raze. “Is she…”
    Real, she’d started to say.
    Lex laughed. “I’m here. I’m…okay.” She gestured at the two
nurses hovering near her, one of whom rested her hands on the back of a
wheelchair. “It wasn’t easy convincing them to let me come outside, but I had
to have the air. I had to have the sun on my face.”
    Rune and Raze walked cautiously toward her. Rune wanted to
run to her, to snatch the girl into her arms, but she was afraid. “Lex?” she
asked.
    Raze hung back, and when Rune glanced at him, she saw an
unfamiliar shyness in his face. Raze was more afraid than she was. And maybe
not of the same things.
    Lex put her hands on her hips and raised an eyebrow. “Will
you two stop acting like I’m a mirage and get the fuck over here? I need a
hug.”
    That was all Rune needed to hear. She rushed to the blind
Other and yanked her into a crushing hug. “Lex, how?”
    Lex appeared calm. Too calm. “I was with the twins. I was
right there with my Levi and Denim until I couldn’t be any longer. Then I had
to come back.”
    “Lex,” Raze said, still a good six feet away, “where are
they?”
    “I don’t know,” Lex whispered, and her too thin body
shivered. “I don’t know.”
    Rune closed her eyes in a long, slow blink. “Do you feel
like telling us everything you saw?” She wouldn’t have been too disappointed
had Lex said no.
    “Yes,” Lex said. “It’s all I can do.” She took a deep breath
and then swayed, a hand to her chest.
    “You,” Raze said, pointing at the nurse with the chair.
“Bring it here.”
    Lex didn’t argue, and gingerly lowered herself into the
wheelchair when the nurse had it behind her. “Some privacy,” she said, and the
nurses walked away.
    The girl was different. Older. Sadder. The shadows from her
horrible past still lived inside her eyes, but they were even deeper. Darker.
She turned her face to Raze. “Don’t be afraid of me now.”
    He swallowed, shifted from foot to foot, and finally crossed
his huge arms. His shivs and guns gleamed against the black of his clothes, and
his dark red hair shone like threads of gold in the sun.
    “You’re such a beautiful man,” Lex continued, when he said
nothing. “In every way. Thank you for helping take care of me. Thank you for…”
She paused and turned her face from him, a blush climbing her cheeks. “For
caring.”
    “I…” Raze cleared his throat, squinted at Rune, then at the
sky, then pursed his lips and said no more.
    Rune took pity on both of them. “Do you want to talk out
here, Lex?”
    “Yes,” Lex answered. “I want to stay in the sun forever. I
was in the dark for so long. Where the twins are…” She put the back of her hand
against her mouth, but still a sob escaped. “It’s so hopeless and cold. The
pain is so red. Oh.” She stuffed her fist against her lips, holding up her
other hand when Raze started toward her.
    So he and Rune stood silent and agonized, waiting for the
little Other to regain control. Rune shuddered uncontrollably, feeling Lex’s
pain, and fearing what the girl was about to tell her.
    Lex lowered her hand. “Do you