I Hid My Supreme Rank, Regret of the Pack novel · Chapter 7 of 24

Chapter 7: The Hands

Ivo's hand closed on my shoulder and pulled me away from Bea, and the pouring stopped.

I sat down hard in the gravel.

Bea lay in Zachary's arms with her eyes open.

Her cheeks were pink, and her breathing was slow and even.

"I feel better," she said, in a small bewildered voice. "Cassie, what did you do?"

"Nothing."

"She touched her," Dunstan said. He was staring at me. "She touched her, and Bea got up."

"People get up when they faint," Zachary said.

"Not like that."

"Visiting hours are over," said the Warden, in a voice that did not rise. "Take her home, and take her to a healer."

Dunstan looked at me for a long time.

Then he put his sister in the car, and the car went out through the gate.

I did not stand up until it was out of sight.

Ivo put a hand under my elbow and helped me.

His fingers were warm, and my legs were shaking so hard I had to lean against him.

"I'm fine," I said.

"You're gray."

"I'm just tired."

"Come to the floor tonight," he said. "Nine o'clock. I'll teach you to stand up straight again."

"That isn't what you're teaching."

"No," he agreed.

The storm came in just after dark.

I was on the basement ring at nine, with the lamp swinging overhead as the wind banged against the tower, and my knuckles raw from an hour on the heavy bag.

Ivo came down the stairs and looked at my hands.

"Sit."

I sat on the low wooden bench.

He knelt in front of me and unrolled a length of cloth tape.

He took my right hand in both of his and wrapped it slowly, one turn at a time, around the knuckles, across the palm, and between each finger.

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