“What happened to your arm?”

I raised my arm up and looked at it myself. It was wrapped rather crudely with gauze and tape by Jinyoung, who had been too hurried to wrap it neatly (not that he could anyways). I’d turned a corner while biking and crashed into a bus (a stationary one, but a bus nonetheless) and sent myself flying. Somehow, I managed to only scrape both of my arms -- rather badly -- but it was a miracle that only my arms were hurt. My bike was beyond repair, but I was actually surprised some last moment instinct had kicked in and I’d landed only on my elbows and feet. It had stung like hell, especially when Jinyoung poured antiseptic on it, and it looked terrifying, but it didn’t hurt anymore. “I crashed into a bus.”

“You what?”

“It was stationary!”

“That makes it all the more stupider.”

“Whatever.”

Chapter 15

I’d never felt so much pain to the point where I really thought I was going to die.

But right now, another moment of the pain was really going to kill me.

Kai had done something with his aura, because it didn’t seem to hurt as much as it did in the beginning, but that didn’t make it much better. I almost wished that I had passed out and when I finally woke up, I would be back at the Seoul safehouse with my leg healed.

It was slightly odd as we walked through the streets of Seoul; I was pretty sure my leg was to some degree bloody, and my hands, too, and Kai was just carrying me on his back and no one even noticed us. Though it was hard to admit, Jimin’s glamor spell he cast must’ve worked extremely well.

Every jolt caused another wave of pain in my leg. I could tell that Kai was being careful with his movements, and though it might’ve been better if he’d ran to get back, it was less painful for me when he walked carefully.

After what seemed like forever, the familiar, worn down, glamoured version of the Seoul safehouse appeared. I wanted to sob in relief.

There was a faint tugging when we passed the wards, but as the air shimmered, the safehouse turned to what it normally looked like, though I didn’t have the energy to pay attention to it. Another jolt, and I tried to hold back the tears. I’d already cried, and it felt embarrassing to do so again, especially when I’d held the tears back already for so long. Five minutes more. Less. Then it’d be healed.

I was light, but even then, it wasn’t something small that Kai was able to carry me for over ten minutes without stumbling. As he mounted the front steps, each step seemed to jerk a little and the pain became fresh again.

Baekhyun was the one who opened the door after a little while of knocking. His hair was still wet, each strand dripping drops of water down onto his shirt. He rubbed his eyes, then looked confusedly at me. “Mira,” he stated, looking thoroughly puzzled. “Why is Kai carrying… oh. My god. Is that your… your blood…”

“Get Yixing!” Without waiting for an answer, Kai shoved past Baekhyun.

Still shellshocked, Baekhyun turned slowly. “Yixing!” he shouted. “Zhang Yixing! Emergency!”

“Where are we going?” The words weren’t the best distractor from the pain. I could see the blood beginning to soak through the makeshift bandage Kai had wrapped around my leg, and the sight terrified me. The world seemed to be spinning around me, and though I’d been to the safehouse for quite a while, I had no idea where we were anymore.

“Medical room. Yixing will find you there.”

He turned abruptly into a room, and through spinning vision, I registered eight white beds lined up on the walls. How much blood had a lost? How much blood loss was fatal? Had Yunseo stabbed a major artery in my leg? Was that why there was so much blood?

“Stay awake.” Faintly, I registered Kai’s voice. It was so commanding that I did blink awake. “Yixing’s going to be down in a minute or so. I need to get you onto one of beds so he can heal you properly, but you’re on my back so it’s best that you get down first.”

With much trouble, I detached myself from him and tried to put my weight on my right leg instead of my left. There was pain when I moved the leg, but I managed somehow to get off successfully and lean against one of the beds.

At that time, footsteps thudded in the hallway and before long, the door was pushed open and Baekhyun appeared with another boy beside him. The latter scanned the room, seemingly looking at Kai before his eyes landed on me.

“Oh,” was the first thing he said, and then again, “oh.”

“Yes, oh,” Kai snapped, “Yixing, we don’t have time for this! Heal her.” He paused. “Please, hyung.”

“Hey! How come you don’t call me hyung?” Baekhyun demanded.

Kai shot him a dirty look.

Yixing ignored Baekhyun. “Get her on the bed, Kai.”

Baekhyun let out a snort, a half disbelieving half incredulous noise. “Word choice,” he muttered.

“I can do it myself,” I mumbled, a little dazed. My head was still spinning and I had a hard time focusing on Yixing and Baekhyun; their faces were blurry, and if it weren’t for the height difference, I wouldn’t be able to tell who was who.

I might’ve been really losing it, because I tried to swing my injured leg up on the bed. A split second later, I was on the ground in pain.

In the end, Kai and Yixing managed to haul me up, and by then, whatever magic Kai had done to the wound with his aura was beginning to fade, because the jacket was no longer doing it’s job as a stopper to the blood flow. When Yixing untied it from around my leg, it looked so horrible that I had to close my eyes.

The Chinese boy didn’t flinch when he saw it, eyes narrowing. Even Kai looked a little nauseated. Baekhyun had long left the room, and I couldn’t blame him for doing so. The pain might’ve been the worst part, but seeing just how bad it looked fell close behind. It was kind of like the action movies, and gruesome might’ve been the proper describing word. Some part of me wondered how I was still alive.

Yixing pressed a hand against my forehead and pushed my head downwards gently but firmly. He looked calm, and just looking at him made me feel better. He was going to heal me. In a little while, there’d be no wound on my leg (five wounds, actually, if you counted the fact that Yunseo had stabbed me with five fingers).

“Fire elemental? I can tell by the claw marks. Only they fight like that.” He was talking to Kai. “What happened?”

“She was attacked in the washroom.” Kai’s voice was terse. “The elemental had a really strong glamour on her, but even then… I can’t believe I couldn’t sense her. She went to t