1

Lorenzo regained consciousness around midafternoon. His labored breathing, which had persisted throughout the day, got worse as he became anxious. “What happened?” he gasped. “I… I can’t feel anything.”

Keshon yelled, “Don’t move,” as she hurried to the injured Grimalkin member, but she was too late.

Lorenzo attempted to get up and failed. “I can’t move!”

The healer laid her hands gently on his body and told him that may be a good thing. “Lorenzo, you’ve suffered a traumatic spinal cord injury. Had you been able to move, you might have caused more damage,” she said hurriedly. “Stay still.”

While Nevan and Kylah quickly cooked up a fish broth at the fire pit, Keshon spent the next hour running the Italian through a series of physical tests. She squeezed his toes and his fingers.

“Nothing! Nothing,” Lorenzo exclaimed.

“Don’t worry. It might come back.”

Kylah and Nevan returned with the broth and siphoned the nutrients down his throat. After a short while, Lorenzo drifted back into unconsciousness. Over the next few hours, his respiration worsened into a rattling sound. Keshon knew that most traumatic spinal cord injury-related deaths came from respiratory failure, but she couldn’t do a thing about it. She had no treatments, no ventilators.

Lorenzo woke up with a start later in the afternoon and coughed out a thick patch of yellow mucus. That allowed him to breathe easier for an hour, but then his respiration worsened again.

Nevan and Kylah told Keshon to take a break, seeing how hopeless she was feeling. “Go on,” Kylah said. “Dad will watch over Lorenzo, and I’ll watch you from the doorway.”

The nurse refused, but her body told her otherwise. She needed some clean air, and she still had to inform the team of his condition anyway. “Daily updates at sundown,” Harper had told her. Keshon wondered if the Italian would make it that long.

Walking to the edge of the village, she sat on a boulder and watched the torrential river flash by her. As the sun started setting, she telepathed Harper. Is now a good time?

A response never came.

She considered reaching out to Damon but didn’t. The silence meant one of two things. Either the veteran mage was dead, or they were in the middle of an intense battle. Keshon hoped it was the latter, and she waited.

As the minutes ticked by, she wondered whether she should telepath Damon. She glanced over her shoulder at Kylah. The young teenager stood in the doorway, illuminated by the glow spells in the cabin. Around her, dark blue shadows dappled the dusty road as the last traces of sunlight disappeared.

“Any changes?” Keshon called out.

Kylah shook her head. Even from a distance, she could see the gleam of tears in the teenager’s eyes. Keshon’s heart ached for her. He may die, she thought, and that poor girl is going to have to carry that with her for the rest of her—

Harper’s late reply interrupted her thoughts. Hi, Keshon, I’m sorry. We were in the middle of our first battle. We lost Jackson.

Keshon’s heart sank. Jackson? Jackson’s dead? Emotions welled up in her chest, choking her speech. What… what killed him? Was it fast? She paused, then added, how is Hammer doing?

As she listened to Harper’s recounting of the events, her eyes filled with tears. Not wanting Kylah to see them, Keshon walked closer to the turbulent river. She wept for Jackson and for Lorenzo. When Harper told her the team was going to move on to the next floor, Keshon filled her in on Lorenzo’s condition.

Well, you’re doing everything you can, the veteran told her, but for Keshon, that wasn’t enough. She wiped away her tears before she turned around and walked back to the cabin, wondering how she was going to break the news about Jackson.

2

Kylah and Nevan took the news better than she thought, stoically turning their attention back to Lorenzo, who had fallen asleep. They pushed three beds together and sat on the one closest to the injured hunter.

“If he dies, he will have done so as a hero,” Nevan said.

His daughter looked up at him. “He won’t die.”

They watched Lorenzo for an hour, watching the rise and fall of his chest. A thin whistling sound started emitting from his throat. Kylah turned to Keshon, her mouth quivering and her eyes gleaming. The healer placed her palm on the girl’s hand but didn’t offer any words of encouragement.

When they decided to sleep, the trio lay on their beds. Keshon took the one closest to Lorenzo. They stared at him, each wondering if he’d make it through the night. The three members eventually fell asleep while their teammates were still battling somewhere in the depths of the earth.