Thea Harrison - Oracle's Moon

He froze, staring.

A Djinn was wrapped around a sobbing Chloe, the presence so gossamer thin she was transparent. It was Phaedra. When Grace called Khalil, she must have pulled both connections by accident.

Max’s body was rigid and shaking in her arms. She turned her attention to him. He was still screaming with such lusty energy his face was a darkened red.

She decided right then and there that screaming was awesome. Screaming meant you were alive. If you had the strength to scream, hopefully you had the strength to recover. But still.

“We need a doctor,” she said to Khalil.

He looked at her again, a sparkling crisis in his eyes, while his jaw flexed.

She was making sound when she talked, wasn’t she? She put more force into the next words. “A pediatrician. Tell them it’s an emergency.”

His Power flared. A strange Djinn appeared. Khalil said something in a sharp whip of a voice that she heard as if from a distance. After one wide-eyed glance around, the Djinn nodded and whisked away.

Oh, good. That meant a doctor would be coming. She looked at Max again. He wasn’t bleeding. That had to be good too. She had no idea what to do for him. There were classes for that sort of thing, what were they called? Whatever they were, she should take some. Her head was pounding, her ears hurt, and her skin and knee felt like they were on fire.

Then Khalil knelt, and Chloe was there, still sobbing and wrapped in towel, and he simply enfolded them all. Grace leaned against him while she wrapped her arms around the children, and Khalil put his face in her hair. She thought he and Phaedra said things to each other, but she wasn’t sure, because it was such a strain to focus on anything, so she just concentrated on holding those poor, scared babies.

Black clouds like smoke filled her head, or maybe it was the dark sea. This time the vision came to her so softly, it was as if she fell into a dream.

She was surrounded with people.

Petra touched her hand and looked at her with such gratitude. Thank you for looking after them.

Of course , Grace said. What else would I do?

Gram smiled proudly and said, I knew you would figure it out.

Then a strange, angry man told her, Check the insurance again. I would never fall asleep at the wheel.

Grace stared. She recognized him from photographs in the newspaper. He was the independent trucker who crossed the meridian line and caused the head-on collision. But that’s what I was told.

It’s a lie.

The trucker faded back into the sea, and suddenly the world snapped back into place. Khalil knelt in front of her. He cupped her face, handling her with a tense care that was in sharp contrast to the banked violence of emotion in his elegant face. She startled badly when she realized the kids were no longer on her lap. She grabbed his wrists.

He shook one of his hands free to hold a vial up to her mouth. She watched his lips as he said, “Drink it.”

She could feel the magic in the vial even in her dizzy confusion. It was a “cure-all” healing potion, expensive and rare. When she opened her mouth to ask where the kids went and how he had gotten the potion, he tilted the precious contents of the vial between her open lips, and she had no choice but to swallow.

An intense golden glow filled her body and drove back the dark sea. The Power from the potion pulsed in her skin, her knee and her head. Khalil wrapped an arm around her shoulders and nudged the rim of another vial between her lips. “Drink another one,” he said.

By that time her dizziness had lessened, and she heard him for real. She didn’t waste time on asking how he had gotten them or how much they cost. Instead she drank, and that time the Power in the potion blew away the clouds in her head. She said, “The kids.”

“Right over there.”

She looked where Khalil pointed. Somehow the backyard had filled up with people. Max was lying on a stretcher, attended by a man and a woman, EMT equipment on the ground nearby. Chloe sat on another stretcher, wrapped in a blanket. She was being examined by another man. Four Djinn stood nearby, watching the EMTs alertly.

Power swirled behind her. She glanced over her shoulder. At least two other Djinn were in the blackened wreckage that had been the back of the house, although they weren’t in physical form. As she turned back to face Khalil she caught sight of a seventh Djinn, who wore the form of a muscular ebony-skinned male. He stared fixedly at her.

Whatever was up with that particular Djinn, it was definitely not her problem. She had enough on her plate at the moment, thank you. She turned away from the puzzle. As she focused on Khalil again, he said, “The kids are all right.”

“Are you sure?”

His jaw was clenched, diamond eyes filled with radiant wetness. She put a hand to his face, and he snatched her to him so tightly she grunted. “Yes,” he said hoarsely. “You’re all going to be all right. But gods damn, you almost weren’t. Gods damn , I saw my daughter. I talked to Phaedra. She said you healed her.”

“I didn’t heal her. I just showed her who she used to be.” She leaned against him, resting her head on his chest. “She made the choice, and—I don’t know what else to call it—she repatterned or realigned herself. I didn’t mean to call her when I called for you. I just couldn’t tell what I was doing. My head was all fucked up.”

“The EMT said you had a concussion, and Max probably did too.” Khalil ran a finger lightly down the bare skin of her arm, and his mouth twisted in a quick sharp spasm. “And first-degree burns. A pediatrician is with him now.”

Grace glanced gratefully over at the people working to help the children. She said, “Phaedra looked so threadbare after she changed, I was really worried about her. She said she needed to rest. Is she still here?”

“As soon as other help came, she left. She needs time, maybe a lot of time, and nourishment, and I don’t think she can ever be quite the same as she was. But her essence is true again, not warped. She made a connection with you, and she answered it.” He glared. “You were supposed to call me if she showed up again.”

“I remembered,” she told him, truthfully enough. “I just got busy.”

“We will talk of that later.” He bowed over her. She could feel what a maelstrom he was of out-of-control emotion, pain, a terror that was too slow to fade, and a twisted up, overwhelmed sense of wonder. He could barely hold on to his physical form. “Do you realize what a miracle you are? You scared me so much this time. ”

A glowing drop of liquid streaked down and landed on her dirty T-shirt where it lay like a shining jewel for a moment before it was soaked into the material. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. She touched the small damp spot wonderingly. It still had a tiny spark of his Power that slowly faded. “I didn’t mean to.”

Someone approached; it was the woman who had been examining Max. She knelt beside Grace with a smile. “I’m Dr. Lopez. You’re looking better.”

“I’m feeling better, thanks,” Grace said.

“I scanned you when you were a little out of it earlier. You’ve strained your knee, but I don’t think you’ve done any further lasting damage. Wear your brace for a couple of weeks and baby that knee. Hot and cold compresses, and ibuprofen. I’m sure you know the drill. Be sure to see your orthopedic surgeon if it gives you any trouble.”

“I will.” Grace twisted around to look at the kids. One EMT rubbed Max’s stomach, talking soothingly while the baby sucked his thumb. The other EMT smiled at Chloe, who was showing him the toys in her bucket. “How are they?”