Chapter 34

Rowena

I pushed through the crowd that had formed around my brother and another warrior. They were circling each other as though they were about to fight, although just a few minutes ago Eric had been standing by the poolside.

“What’s going on?” I asked, tapping a nearby warrior on his shoulder.

“This guy just challenged Eric Griffith, of all people, to a spar,” the warrior replied. “He’s about to get his ass kicked.”

I furrowed my brow. The warrior who had challenged Eric seemed younger, and judging from his posture and muscle definition, he wasn’t nearly as experienced with fighting as Eric was. But it was already too late for me to step in; the fight had already begun, and now I could only hope that Eric would take it easy on him.

As I watched the fight begin, I felt my blood pressure slowly rising. The other warrior’s footwork was all off; he was too green of a fighter for this. I tapped on the warrior’s shoulder beside me again and leaned over.

“Who is this guy?” I asked.

“Oh, I think his name is Adam or something,” the warrior said with a shrug. “He’s a freshman. Just started.”

“So he’s not even a warrior yet?” I asked.

“Not officially, no.”

I bit the inside of my cheek as I returned my attention to the fight. Eric and Adam circled each other, their stances lowered and hands raised—a pretty standard hand-to-hand spar. But Adam’s footwork was slow and clumsy, whereas Eric’s was well-practiced, short and quick steps.

“He’s too slow,” I muttered to myself.

Suddenly, Eric lunged forward and caught Adam’s front leg with his arms. He threw Adam off balance, and although Adam managed to right himself and get Eric off with a few jabs to the shoulder, I couldn’t help but wince.

Eric sprang back to his feet, bouncing on his toes while Adam readjusted his posture. “Is that all you got?” he teased. “Come on, you’re better than that!”

Adam let out a low growl and rushed forward, clearly put off by Eric’s taunting. I saw Eric’s fist move upward, and it felt as though time froze. Their movements seemed to stretch on for an eternity, Adam’s eyes fixed on the wrong spot and his feet too close together while Eric’s fist aimed directly toward Adam’s chest.

“Rooting for your boyfriend?” a voice suddenly murmured in my ear, snapping my attention away from the intense fight.

I whipped my head around to see Heather standing beside me, a maniacal smirk on her face. “I already told you, he’s my brother,” I said coolly.

Heather rolled her eyes. “Yeah. And everyone knows that it’s totally normal to look at your brother like that.”

I frowned as Heather walked away. It was only then that I realized that I had been blushing while I was watching the fight; but I quickly shook it off, telling myself that I was just worried about the safety of the fight and nothing more.

No, it definitely was not the way that Eric’s muscles gleamed in the sunlight, or the way that his blue eyes were locked onto his target like a predator, or the way that his lithe body seemed almost silhouetted against the light of the sun.

Boom!

The sound of Eric’s fist making contact with Adam’s chest was like a gun going off, and quickly pulled me out of my reverie. Adam teetered in his spot, then toppled onto his back. The crowd cheered, and Eric pumped his fists triumphantly in the air.

But my eyes were only on Adam. He was barely moving as he laid there, drawing in shallow, shuddering breaths.

Something was terribly wrong; any combat manager with half a brain could tell that the punch that Eric had landed on Adam’s chest was a dangerous move, and Adam was facing the consequences.

“Move out of the way!” I cried out, shoving my way through the growing crowd. “Someone get me a med kit and call an ambulance!”

A hush fell over the crowd as I fell to my knees next to Adam. It only took a few moments of inspecting him, listening to his quivering breaths and pressing gently on his ribcage, to know what had happened.

Traumatic pneumothorax. His lung was collapsing because of that punch to the chest, and no one had even noticed.

“I need a chest drain tube!” I called out to the warrior who was bringing me a med kit. “Make it quick!”

As I grabbed the chest drain tube from the warrior and got to work, a circle began to form around me—but I hardly noticed. My focus was solely on the warrior laying on the ground, struggling for air.

“I—I—” he gasped, his eyes wide with fear. “I don’t wanna—”

“You’re gonna be okay,” I said gently as I unfurled the drain tube. “This will be uncomfortable, but you’re going to live, okay?”

“O-Okay—”

“Everyone stand back!” I shouted at the growing crowd. “Can’t you see I’m trying to save a life?”

The warriors around me stepped backwards, their earlier excitement now receding into worried whispers. Somewhere nearby, a girl let out a sob. “That’s my boyfriend!” she cried. “Please save him!”

“I’m trying,” I said. Gritting my teeth, I pulled Adam’s arm up, exposing his armpit, and began to insert the drain tube. He let out a wild cry of pain, but on my command someone held him down, keeping him from thrashing.

“Almost there,” I said gently. “You’re doing great, Adam.”

“It hurts!” he groaned.

“I know it hurts. But your lung is collapsing and I have to do this quickly. Just breathe.”

Adam drew in a shuddering breath, and I continued to insert the drain tube. I, on the other hand, hardly breathed at all. In fact, it wasn’t until I saw the telltale fluid coming out through the tube that I finally let out a breath I didn’t even realize I had been holding.

As the fluid drained out of his chest, his chest slowly began to expand. He drew in a breath, coughed and sputtered, but his face began to fade back to its normal color.

“You saved him,” the girl from earlier cried out. “Oh my god, she saved Adam!”

Before I could even fathom what had just happened, the sound of the EMTs approaching filled the air. Several men and women in blue jumpsuits ran to the scene, and it was all I could do to explain what had just happened as they loaded Adam onto the stretcher.

“You did well, miss,” one of the EMTs said as the others took Adam and his sobbing girlfriend, who was now holding his hand, away. “You just saved that kid’s life.”

I swallowed. “I just saw the symptoms and acted,” I said. “I hope I did it right.”

The EMT nodded. “You’re a natural, clearly.”

As I watched the EMT walk away, I could feel the eyes of the others around me. I turned, expecting to see an array of the usual judgmental looks, but was surprised to see the opposite; a sea of faces looked at me, their faces etched with shock.

But I only saw one face above all the rest.

Eric stood in front of me, staring at me with wide eyes.