The Afterlife Academy Saga

Chapter 13

13

“There are two parts to the bleeding,” Flavia muttered, not clear whether she was talking to us or herself. From the first-aid kit, she pulled a scalpel that she placed on Astrid’s forearm. “First, a small incision is to be made on the participant’s non-dominant arm, large enough to draw blood.”

Her hand quivered as she hovered the small blade over the unconscious girl, seemingly trying to ready herself.

“Are you okay?”

“Yes, yes. I’m fine.” She nodded, but it wasn’t convincing me.

“Are you sure?”

“I’m just…” Flavia hesitated to take a deep breath. “I’m not good with blood.”

Ah… That would certainly explain her shakiness.

I placed a hand on her shoulder, hoping it wouldn’t startle her. “I can do it?”

“No, I’ll be fine…” Yet, she didn’t move a muscle. Frozen in time, precious seconds ticked away as Flavia fought a battle none of us could see.

There was nothing as unnerving as seeing a brave person shaken up, which wasn’t something I ever thought I’d see from the third-year. Her fear had to be really bad that she couldn’t just push through it.

I crouched down and took the scalpel from her hand. “I’ll do it, but you’ll have to guide me through it.”

The moment I took the blade from her, she visibly relaxed. A tense breath escaped and a little bit of colour returned to her cheeks. As she turned to look at me, a deep gratitude sparked in her eyes. The kind that we didn’t really have words for.

I tightened my grip on the metal handle of the blade. “What do I do?”

“From what I read, you’re supposed to make a small but deep incision in her forearm. You want to hit an artery, but you don’t want to go through it.”

“Okay…” The idea of pushing a knife into someone’s flesh didn’t exactly appeal to me either and I could feel my stomach turn from the mere idea. Yet, this was my time to prove that I wasn’t just trouble for everyone.

A soft hand fell on my knee and I looked up at Ryoko’s face.

She smiled reassuringly. “You got this.”

“I got this,” I repeated, gathering myself. “I got this.”

Quickly, but determined, I pressed the scalpel into Astrid’s arm. With surprisingly little pressure, the blade sunk into her flesh and red blood welled up.

It was a lot brighter than I expected and not nearly as scary. It was just a bit of blood, pooling together.

Actually… Rapidly pooling together.

Wow, that was a lot of blood.

Panicked, I turned to the third-year. “What now?”

“Now you make a similar but shallow cut in the palm of my hand,” she instructed. She held out her arm, still shaking like a leaf.

“I’m not going to do that,” I protested. She was already freaked out enough, I wasn’t going to risk cutting into her and having her faint too. Then we’d be in serious trouble.

“Ylva, there’s no time to hesitate. The ritual only works if we introduce different magic to her system. We need Wind Child blood.”

I stared at the third-year, my resolve only growing stronger. Flavia would never ask this of me and that was exactly why I needed to do it.

Instead of using the blade on her, I pressed it down on my own hand. My skin tingled against the metal, the anticipation roaring through me.

I couldn’t look, so I locked eyes with Ryoko as I pulled the scalpel through. The instant stinging ripped through me and I let out a controlled hiss of pain. This was not the time to kick up a lot of drama.

With my fingers pressed on the wound to control the bleeding, I turned to Flavia. “Now what?”

“Do you have any diseases?”

I shook my head.

“Then drip some of your blood on Astrid so they can mix. The foreign magic should alarm her system and that should increase the strength of her wind.”

My wind whispered and crackled as I hovered my hand over my classmate’s arm. It was weird to mix our blood, especially when she was unconscious. Almost like entering a sacred bond or something.

Drop by drop, my blood fell down on her pale skin and the two liquids met.

Tense with anticipation, I waited for something to happen, but Astrid didn’t react. She was just as unconscious as when we started.

“Nothing happened,” I said, not capable of keeping the disappointment out of my voice.

Flavia peeked from under her hand, softly gagging at the sight of the blood pulsating up from the slit. “It should’ve worked…”

“If you need foreign blood, you can have mine too.” Ryoko pushed her hand towards me. “Will that help?”

We both turned towards the third-year, who barely managed to nod. She turned away as I pressed the scalpel into Ryoko’s palm.

Her skin was soft and smooth, yet put up a lot more resistance than my own. If I had to make a guess, it had something to do with the scales I could see when the sun hit her from a certain angle.

Her dark blood had a blue shine and formed a perfect drop as it fell down on Astrid’s wound. A little wisp of smoke sizzled up, curling the edges of the skin away. More drops fell down, but none of them managed to elicited a response.

“It’s not enough.” My hand tightened around the scalpel. We were trying so hard. Why wasn’t it working?

“She needs more Wind Child blood.” Flavia clamped one hand over her eyes as she extended the other to me. “Please do it quickly. If I faint, just let me be. I’ll come by soon enough.”

I took hold of her hand. “Are you sure?”

“Yes, just do—”

Before she could finish talking, I slashed the scalpel into her skin and drew blood. I heard that knowing something was going to happen made things worse. I really hoped that was the case now.

Flavia’s blood streamed down the ball of her hand and onto Astrid’s, where it pooled together with mine and Ryoko’s.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

“Yes, I’m fine,” Flavia muttered, her face paler than snow. “Totally fine. Is it working?”

I studied Astrid, searching, hoping for a reaction. She was losing quite a bit of blood, but there was nothing I could do about that. If we’d been better organised or knew what we were doing, we could’ve got it all sorted quicker. It just wasn’t the case.

“Take mine too.” Sim shuffled towards me, still too weak to stand. “Let’s add some Elf in the mix.”

“You’re too weak,” I warned, but he chuckled.

“It takes a lot more to take me down.” He pushed his hand forward. “Here.”

With a steadier hand, I cut into his palm. While it’d been a little queasy in the beginning, I was quickly getting more accustomed to slicing into someone.

Sim hissed as his green blood welled up and he quickly held it over Astrid’s arm. The green mingled with the two shades of red blood and the blue, a strange mixture of different colours and viscosities.

Astrid groaned, her muscles visibly contracting and spasming. A sudden seizure ripped through her body that whipped up a small storm. The sheer force of her magic threw us all back, the sound of the wind growing louder and louder. From a mere whisper, it built until it was a raging howl that ripped through the bunker.

I tried to find Ryoko, to make sure she was safe, but the barrage of wind made it impossible to sit upright. I couldn’t open my eyes or hear anything besides the shrieking of Astrid’s magic.

Just as I was about to call on my own magic and use it to counter the assault, the wind died down. The noise left an echo whistling in my ears, but I could see and listen again.

“You okay?” a voice asked, one I recognised without any problem. Ryoko.

I focused my eyes, trying to dispel the last of the confusion and chaos.

“Ylva?”

Following the sound of her voice, I crawled forward until I bumped into her. She steadied me, the warmth of her hands engulfing me. Her touch was comforting, reassuring like nobody else’s.

“I’m alright,” I mumbled, pushing past the strain in my muscles. “Are you?”

“Been better.”

Her voice was so clear and bright, it made my chest tighten. I didn’t understand how I’d ever been so blind to what effect she had on me. I was drawn to her, inexplicably but at the same time, it all made so much sense.

“Hi.” My voice came out as a murmur, but it only added to the moment of intimacy.

“Hey,” she breathed back. Her dark eyes flickered with something I couldn’t identify or couldn’t quite comprehend yet. But the way she looked at me, it was an invitation to try and work out what all the unspoken things meant.

“You sure you’re alright?” she asked softly, the concern warming my heart.

“Hmm-hmmm.” The longer I stood there with her so close to me, the less words or thoughts I needed to understand what was going on.

She was beautiful beyond her golden scales and mysterious eyes. Beneath the surface of politeness and her reserved demeanour, there was a deep reservoir of powerful emotions and principals.

It had taken me a while to see all of that, but I’d never understood it more clearly than from our stay here in the bunker. Deep underground, far away from everyone that she knew and that mattered, she still held herself to the same standards.

Ryoko’s eyes softened. “I—”

A loud clatter broke the moment and we jolted apart, breaking all contact.

“Ahem,” I coughed, trying to wave the awkwardness away.

It didn’t help.

I brought my attention back to the task at hand, which was making sure that Astrid and the others were alright too.

Flavia was crouched next to my classmate, two fingers pressed into her neck. Astrid’s breathing was laboured, but steadier than before. I hoped that was a good sign.

“And?” I asked, approaching carefully, bracing for bad news. My hands tightened into fists, balling the stress and anticipation. Did it work?

The third-year looked up at me, her expression indecipherable. A sigh escaped her lips. “She’ll make it.”