Godfire: The Split Soul-Chapter 176: Then Let Them Break Twice

The world narrowed to a single ringing sound as Jinx stared at her friend. ’Dead?!’ The word looped in her head, refusing to settle down.

Lena’s smiling face lanced through Jinx’s head.

"No," she shook her head, her chest heaving like the sea before a tsunami.

More tears trailed down Cassy’s face as she wrapped her arms around Jinx’s shoulders. "Jinx..."

"NO!" A scream tore out of Jinx, so loud that Captain Jin and Officer Jinwoo’s jaws tightened as they covered their ears.

Jinx’s arms raised high, then slammed onto the mattress of the bed. "How?" Her voice lanced through the room like shards of glass.

Cassy pulled herself back, then covered her own mouth with her left palm. "She’s a victim of the attacks."

"I was gone for so long!" A sob rose through Jinx’s throat. "I’m the cause of that."

"No, you aren’t." Cassy moved forward and once again wrapped her arms around the lady.

The lines on the monitor’s screen sped up the moment Jinx began to beat the mattress harder.

The doctor’s face turned pale as she shifted her gaze from the screen to the roughly moving lady. "Her vitals are going up."

No matter what the doctor stated, Jinx didn’t care.

After three minutes of beating the bed, Jinx stopped, then turned and looked at Cassy, blood streaking across her knuckles. "Kai?"

Cassy inhaled deeply, her lips parting.

"Tell me now, Cassy."

Cassy glanced at the captain, then at the transparent window. "He’s alive."

Jinx’s body sagged for a brief second.

"But..."

Jinx’s sudden relief vanished in an instant.

Cassy licked her lips, then blinked. "They said he joined the soldiers and was seen with Team Alpha."

As Kai’s face bounced in Jinx’s head, the monitor’s scream intensified.

Jinx’s eyes turned red as they widened in disbelief. "What?!"

Captain Jin stepped forward. "There are multiple field accounts of a boy with red and blue eyes matching his description in the active combat zones."

"A boy with red and blue eyes, matching—" A short laugh of shock escaped from Jinx. "That is Kai!"

Pain detonated through her ribs and shoulder when she tried to push herself from the bed. Her right leg jerked off the bed as the need to move overpowered the warnings being sent through her veins.

Just as she stepped onto her foot, the world spun around in a haze.

Cassy and the doctor grabbed her before she began hitting her head on the bedrail.

"Lie down!" the doctor begged.

"No! Let me go!"

"You have fractures, and your body has not fully recovered." The doctor snapped.

"I... don’t... care!"

Jinx fought against Cassy and the doctor, trying to drag herself forward against the raised bedrails.

"Kai was there when Lena—" Her breath cracked. "He saw it. He has seen it. He needs me now!"

Neither the doctor nor Cassy said a word. They only tightened their grips to restrain her.

Tears poured down Jinx’s cheeks as Lena’s laughter lanced through her head.

"Kai..." she cried in a voice that carried no flirtation, only pain and shame.

The doctor pressed a hand gently but firmly on Jinx’s shoulder. "You need to stop, or else you will worsen the damage your body has already gone through."

When Jinx’s body became limp as the tears dripped onto the floor, the doctor, Cassy, and Officer Jinwoo shoved her back onto the bed.

Jinx stared at the blanket placed over her body as if it were an insult.

She lay there, staring at their faces, feeling her bones screaming and more pain lancing through her body as she clenched her fists.

Cassy watched her in fear now, already knowing what she was capable of doing.

Just as Jinx’s rising chest calmed, she turned to Cassy. "I’m going."

Cassy froze for a second, then broke free from her daze. "You can’t even stand."

"I don’t care."

A short laugh filled with disbelief escaped the doctor. "That is not how bones work."

Jinx tilted her head, then narrowed her gaze at the woman. "Then let them break twice."

Captain Jin moved two steps back, then folded his arms. "Where exactly do you think you’ll go in this condition?"

"To him." Jinx answered before Officer Jinwoo’s parting lips could open.

"You don’t know where he is." Jinwoo’s brow crumpled.

"Then I’ll ask someone. Else I’ll join those fighting against the creatures."

Jinwoo gave an uneasy statement. "This is a military hospital. You can’t just—"

Jinx shoved the blanket off, swung both legs off the bed, then stood straight. Her hospital gown slipped crookedly over one shoulder.

All four of them froze for a second when they saw the bandages wrapped around her ribs, thighs, and part of her left arm.

Cassy’s eyes became restless as they moved, focusing on the bruises that had bloomed across Jinx’s skin in shades of blue, black, and yellow.

Pain slit through Jinx, yet she still moved.

"Jinx!" Cassy caught her, her own arm trembling as she felt the heat radiating beneath the lady’s skin.

The doctor inhaled and exhaled deeply, then cursed in a loud voice. "Get back on the bed, now."

Jinx shifted her head slowly toward her, then squinted. "Let... me... go!"

Captain Jin stepped forward, closing the distance. "Miss Jinx, enough."

Jinx shifted her gaze to him, then lowered her head. An eerie laugh surged out of her, her shoulders shaking with it.

"No!" She raised her head sharply, then pointed a finger at him. "You came in here asking me how I fought that thing, but the person I actually care about is out there, and none of you are giving me anything useful."

Everyone stood silent, staring at Jinx.

Outside the military hospital, soldiers rushed out of vehicles, holding stretchers occupied with injured civilians.

The Vamus College gleamed like a city carved from wet black glass as the night rain washed over the gravel walkway.

At the entrance of the female dormitory, on the third floor, Tessa stood by an open window, one hand pressed against the frame, the other clutching her phone so tightly that the edges bit into her palm.

Beyond the campus walls, the distant city burned in patches.

Every time the wind shifted, faint sirens and the muted thunder of military vehicles rolled toward the college like a reminder that the world had changed.