Chapter 3

But Justin wasn’t human, and could—

“He can heal.” Kris looked from aunt to aunt, demon to demon: all of them clustered over Justin, here in a dust-filled theater full of despair and voices and aftermath. “Can’t he?”

They exchanged glances.

“What?”

“He might be able to,” Mara said slowly, “but I think Ylse’s right and it’s hurting him…using any of it, right now…”

“What does thatmean?”

“It means,” said Justin very weakly, “that everything hurts. Oh, gods…oh, Kris…” His eyes opened, beautiful as ever, but his voice trembled; Kris held onto him, held him, wanted to weep with relief and terror, and couldn’t. Justin had already started to cry, not from fear but as if hurting too badly to hold it all in; that realization spun Kris’s emotions into white-hot blankness.