The Bloodstone Prophecy - Book 2 (complete)

Chapter 8 - Dreams of Another World

"How is the girl doing?" she asked.

Haji looked up.

"No better," he said. Kami had never seen him look so exhausted. "I'm trying to hope she has a chance, but it's hard to know. She still seems dead. The oil may not work on dead tissue. I wonder what the oil is capable of, and what its limitations are."

"It might kick in after awhile. It took Gedo several hours to heal, after all," Kami said.

"Maybe," Haji said, but he looked doubtful. Kami looked at the girl, so deathly still, and struggled to believe as well. The wounds looked as severe as before. She couldn't detect any signs of healing, no scabbing or healthy pink skin.

Kami thought of the necklace in Gedo's pocket and felt annoyance seeping in. Gedo may not feel the necklace belonged to her, but Neina had given it to her. She'd believed it was hers. She missed its comforting presence. It felt as if she'd connected to it, and now without it, she felt a deep loss. Her mind raced through everything she'd learned about the necklace. Haji had called it an enabling stone. There seemed to be something to that. It had protected her when she pulled Liam from the shadow eels. It had protected them from the shapeshifter. Then the mysterious oil had healed her Gedo. He probably would have died without the oil. And yet after all that, she still knew so little about it.

"Where did you get the scarab?" Kami asked. "I saw..." She almost mentioned her father's name engraved on the necklace, then remembered what Yasmin had said about Gedo never speaking of him. Gedo had briefly mentioned her Baba in the cave, but she wasn't sure if he would be willing to speak of him now.

"I don't know," Gedo said. "It has passed down your Neina's family through many generations. She gave it to your father on the day he turned twelve. He left it along with many of his possessions when he married your mother and moved to America. Your Neina will have to speak to tell you the scarab's story, that is, when we see her next." Gedo's voice cracked. Kami could feel his pain, deep and impenetrable. She held very still, hardly believing he was actually speaking of her father. She hoped he would say more, but after a few minutes of silence, it was clear he had said all he intended to. So the necklace had been Neina's to give after all. It hardly seemed right the necklace was still in Gedo's pocket.

She thought of the brief dream she'd had back in the cave. Was it a random dream? Or was there something to the white essence that merged with the bloodstone? Maybe she could ask Haji later. Right now he needed to focus on the girl, and she didn't want to talk about it with Gedo around.

After driving a few more hours, they stopped to fuel up the vehicles at a tiny rundown gas station in the middle of nowhere.

"Is the oil working at all?" Kami asked

Haji shook his head. Kami felt a crushing disappointment. Liam had sacrificed so much to get the girl out of the Hive. She felt a smoldering anger at the callous treatment by the Shadow Queen. It wasn't fair after all she had been through that the girl had died.

Samuel and Chris came over to the SUV to see the girl.

"It didn't work?!" Chris said. He touched the girl's hand tentatively.

"If I hadn't left her, I might have saved her," Haji said. "If I had been there to feed her and give her water in her weakened state, she might have made it."

"It's not your fault," Kami said. "She was in bad shape. She might not have lived even if you had been there. Besides, I'm almost certain we wouldn't have made it if you hadn't helped carry Gedo and found that cave. I just wish the oil would have worked. If only I'd discovered the oil and used it right when Liam brought her out, I'm pretty sure she would still be alive."