Eloise disappeared into the house to retrieve the supplies Carter asked for, Ruby helping, and I shoved to my feet to search for the witch. Surely her magic would be able to put Nick back together. She could at least keep him alive long enough for the ambulance to get there or maybe Owen the medic. Owen could save almost anyone. I screamed my rage into the night when I found the witch conscious but so weak she couldn’t move; she couldn’t do more than whisper a denial when I asked if she could save Nick.

I slipped in the mud made from dirt and spilled blood, and nearly collided with Carter. I shivered as I caught Nick’s limp hand. “He’s got to make it, lion. He has to.”

“I’m doing my best,” he said under his breath, not looking at me. “But I’m not trained for this, I don’t know—”

“My blood,” Eloise said abruptly, arriving to dump an armful of towels on Carter and the ground. She slapped the crook of her right elbow. “Take it from here. It’ll save him. Do it.”

“We don’t have any needles or tubes,” Carter said. “And I’m not trained in how to—”

Eloise glared at him and stalked back into the house at a half-run, returning with a large kitchen knife. I stared at her, too stunned to move, and tried to process what I was seeing as Eloise pointed the knife at me. “I love you, you stupid cow, and you better fix this with him. Be happy. You deserve it.”

Then she set the knife blade against her right wrist and gouged it in. I screamed and Benedict shouted and Eloise cursed and shook and then threw up as she held her arm over Nick’s back and the open wounds, so her blood dripped right into them to mix with his.

Carter tried to wrap a towel around her wrist to stem the flow of blood, his own face white as he stared at her. “You can’t do that, Eloise, you’ll die if—”

“It’s not enough yet,” she said, pushing him away. She wobbled and avoided looking at her wrist as more of her blood ran into Nick’s wounds. Benedict snarled and grabbed her shoulders, trying to haul her away. “Not just yet. Almost.”

I grabbed hold of her to steady her, resting my forehead against hers as we sank to sit on the ground next to Nick. “You unbelievable idiot,” I whispered. “Benedict is going to kill you.”

“I know,” she whispered back.

Carter grumbled and caught her wrist to clamp the towel around it. “That has to be enough, Eloise; you’re turning blue.” He even took the belt out of his discarded pants to secure pressure around the wound, and retrieved the kitchen knife so she wouldn’t do it again.

Benedict pulled on his pants and grabbed Eloise around the waist, hauling her up the stairs and into the house while he snarled and bitched about her taking unnecessary risks with her life. She tried to get a word in edgewise but didn’t succeed.

Nick didn’t move, and I kept one palm flat on his shoulder as Eloise leaned against me and I tried to breathe with Nick. I needed him to live. I needed it with every breath I drew.

Of course, I’d needed Cal, too. I’d screamed at the injustice of not having Cal. I thought my world ended with Cal. And yet... the crushing feeling of a world without Nick left me empty and aching and hollow.

The air moved around us and I didn’t have even the energy to look up, too lost in whether I would lose Nick to care if it was another enemy. Another beast to defeat. But the scent of anise and cardamom filled the backyard and then Iskander crouched on the other side of Nick’s unmoving body. He looked at me. “This is the one you wanted to use your wish on? Your last wish?”

I couldn’t muster the energy to care. “Yes.”

“Would he have been worth it? Another thousand years of slavery for me? Violating your word?”

“Him?” I sighed, closing my eyes. I didn’t want to see Nick’s last breath. I couldn’t live with it, having that in my mind to play over and over and over on those dark nights when I couldn’t sleep. “Yes. He would have been worth it.”

Iskander folded his arms over his bare chest, looking somehow both larger and smaller than I remembered from the weird in-between place. “Fine.”

“Fine what?”

“Make your wish.”

I refused to hope. I dragged my gaze to him, unwilling to let my heart start beating or my lungs to move. “I wish for him to be healed.”

“As my gift to you, so shall it be done.” Iskander inclined his head into something like a bow, and held his hands out. More blue-green mist sifted down and covered Nick’s prone body.

Carter glanced at the djinn and then held Eloise’s injured wrist into the ripples of blue-green, ignoring her grumbles as he did so. The djinn eyed him but didn’t say anything, and then the sparks faded and Iskander stepped back.

Nick coughed and rolled to his side, groaning, and the massive wounds had already turned to pale scars as he forced his eyes open and looked around. I clutched his hand and looked up at the djinn. “Where will you go? How can we reach you?”

“Reach me?” The dark eyebrows rose. “Why would you want to reach me?”

“To have you over for dinner?” Eloise tore the towels off her wrist, grinning at the healed skin, and moved her wrist back and forth to test the fresh scars. “To send you a thank you card and cookie bouquet?”

The djinn’s head tilted. I wondered if they had cookie bouquets in the in-between place. Probably not. I sighed and wondered where my clothes ended up, since from the sounds of the screeching tires and shouts and growls in the house, we were about to be inundated with shifters and God only knew what else. “To thank you, Iskander. To offer you our help, or ask for yours, or I don’t know.”

He blinked, then looked up at the stars and the suddenly-brighter moon. “I will find you in a month’s time. I do not know where I will be. I have never had…this choice. I think I will see everything.”

“Everything?” Carter asked, sounding a little dubious.

“Everything,” Iskander said with a sigh. It sounded reverent. I had no doubts that the djinn would see everything.

I squeezed Nick’s hand when he tried to rise, and helped Carter keep him pinned to the ground so we could make sure he was healed and it wasn’t just a surface fix. “Thank you, Iskander. I look forward to seeing you again. Enjoy your freedom.”

He smiled and held his arms up, almost twirling with excitement, then he winked out of existence like he’d never been there.

“Who the fuck was that?” Nick asked, his pain-fogged eyes on me. “And why are you naked?”

A laugh worked its way up in my chest and I leaned forward so I could rest my face against his shoulder, inhaling the scent of his bare skin and even the traces of his blood that remained. “Shut up, wolf. We’ll discuss it in a bit. Just…breathe. Live. That’s enough for now.”

“For now,” he said. His hand rested on my hip and I squeezed my eyes shut so no one would see the tears that crept out from between my lashes.

For now, it was definitely enough.