Аманда Хокинг - Switched

Jen laughed.

“Not if I can help…” Finn barely managed to speak through Jen’s hand clamped on his throat.

Finn kicked his leg up, planting it squarely between Jen’s legs, and Jen groaned, but didn’t loosen his grip on his Finn. Keeping his leg there, Finn started tilting backwards. Jen realized what he was doing, but Finn had reached forward and grabbed onto Jen’s jacket. He had changed the weight ratio, and in a moment that felt oddly slow motion, Finn went backwards over the railing, pulling Jen with him.

“No!” I screamed and lunged towards them, grabbing at thin air.

As soon as I reached the railing, Finn suddenly floated up to the top, coughing hoarsely. I gaped at him, too shocked to even believe he was real. He came over the top of the railing, then dropped heavily onto the ground. Lying on his back, he coughed again, and I rushed to his side, kneeling next to him. I touched his face, checking to make sure he was real, and his skin felt soft and warm under my hands.

“That was quite the gamble,” Tove remarked from behind me, and I turned to look at him.

Somewhere along the line, Tove had discarded his blazer, and his white shirt looked slightly burned and bloody. Other than that, he didn’t look that bad as he took a step towards us. It finally dawned on me what had happened.

When Finn had gone over the balcony, Tove had used his power to catch him and lift him back up, setting him down safely.

“Nah, you always come through,” Finn said.

I went back to staring down at him, unable to completely believe that he was alive and here with me again. My hand was on his chest, above his heart, so I could feel it pounding. He placed his hand over mine, holding it gently, but he looked past me at Tove.

“What’s going on in there?” Finn asked Tove and nodded to the house.

“They’re retreating,” Tove explained, standing over us. “We finally managed to get the upper hand. A lot of people were hurt, but Aurora is working on them. For the most part, I think everyone will be okay.”

“Good.” Finn sighed in relief and looked back over at me. “What happened? Are you alright?” His hand went to my side, where I was bleeding all over my dress. I winced under his touch but shook my head.

“It’s nothing. I’m fine,” I insisted.

“Have my mother look at it. She’ll patch you both up,” Tove said.

When I gave him a confused look, reluctantly taking my eyes off Finn, he went on, “Aurora’s a healer. She can touch you and fix you. That’s her ability.”

“Come on,” Finn forced a smile at me and slowly sat up.

He tried to seem like he was perfectly fine, but he had taken quite a beating and there was a hesitation in his movements. Tove helped him to his feet, then took my hand and pulled me up. I refused to leave Finn’s side. I wrapped my arm around his waist, and Finn put his arm around my shoulders, reluctantly putting some of his weight on me. We walked carefully through the broken glass back into the house, and Tove gave more details about the attack.

He had been essential to their defeat. Other than the trackers that had been guarding, most of the Trylle had played defenseless, myself included.

The ballroom looked even worse than we left it. Someone had lit lanterns around the edge of the room so we could at least see better than before. Willa was still scraped and bruised, but she ran eagerly over to me when she saw me and threw her arms around me. She then launched into an excited tale about how she had blown a Vittra out of the ceiling, and I told her I was proud, but I was still too stunned by the destruction.

When Elora saw us, she pulled Aurora from where she was helping a bleeding man. I noted with some grim happiness that the Chancellor had a nasty cut on his forehead, and I hoped that Aurora couldn’t make time to fix him. Elora didn’t look any worse for the wear at all. In fact, if I hadn’t known, I would’ve never thought she’d been here when the fight was going on. Aurora, on the other hand, looked beautiful and regal, but she showed signs of the battle. Her dress was torn, her hair was a mess, and there was blood all over her hands and arms, but I doubted most of it was hers.

“Princess,” Elora looked genuinely relieved when was walked over to us, delicately stepping over broken tables and a Vittra corpse. “I’m glad to see you’re alright. I was very worried about you.”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I mumbled. She reached out and touched my cheek, but there was nothing affectionate about it. It was the way I would touch a strange animal in the zoo that they assured me was safe, but I didn’t really believe it.

“I don’t know what I would’ve done if something happened to you.”

She smiled wanly at me, then dropped her hand and looked at Finn. “I’m sure a thank you is in order for saving my daughter.”

“No need,” Finn replied rather curtly, and Elora gazed him intently for a moment, saying something in his mind. Then she turned and walked away, going to deal with something far more pressing than her daughter.

Aurora squeezed Tove’s arms and looked at him affectionately, making me feel a horrible pang at my own mother’s reaction. Aurora had seemed like an ice queen, too, but she could at least show signs of genuine happiness that her son hadn’t died. The moment passed quickly, and then she was moving on to me. She tore open the hole in my dress wider so she could put her hand on my wound, and I gritted my teeth at the pain. Finn’s tightened his arm reassuringly around my shoulders, and I instantly forgot the pain. He had this way of eclipsing everything else that I would be forever grateful for. A warm tingling sensation passed over my side, and moments later, the pain stopped.

“Good as new,” Aurora smiled tiredly at me. She seemed to have aged since before she’d touched me, and I wondered how much all that healing took out of her. She started taking a step away, going back to helping other people, while Finn was leaning on me, clearly in pain.

“What about Finn?” I asked, and she looked back at me, startled. I was the Princess, but apparently, I had asked something wrong, and she didn’t know how to react.

“No, no, I’m fine,” Finn waved her off.

“Nonsense,” Tove clapped him on the back. He nodded at his mother.

“Finn saved the day. He deserves a little help. Aurora, wanna take care of him?”

She looked uncertainly at her son, then nodded and walked over to Finn.

“Of course,” Aurora murmured.

She started looking over him for his wounds, trying to find out specifically what he needed fixing. I glanced away from them, and I happened to see Rhys sitting on the edge of a table. He was holding a bloody cloth to his forehead and staring down at the ground. The last time I had seen him, I thought he might have been killed trying to save my life.

“Rhys!” I shouted, and when he looked up and saw me, he smiled.

“Go see him,” Finn suggested quietly. Aurora poked at something painful in his side and he winced. “She’s taking care of me.”

“I got him.” Tove took Finn’s arm, so he would be leaning on Tove instead of me.

I didn’t really want to leave Finn, but I felt like I should at least say hi to somebody that tried to save my life. Especially since Rhys had been the only person that had told me I looked beautiful all night without sounding really creepy about it. I looked back at Finn, but he nodded me for me to go and tried not to let on how much pain Aurora was causing him.

“You’re alive!” Rhys grinned. He tried to stand up, but I gestured for him to sit back down. “I wasn’t really sure what happened to you.” He looked past me at Finn, and his expression faltered. “I didn’t know Finn was back. If I had, I wouldn’t have worried.”