Mark was lifted off his feet and pulled through the air. He didn't stop until his back slammed against the Queen with nothing between them but the vines.

A shout of pain escaped Mark, and the Queen snarled, "Hurts, doesn't it?"

"Let him go!" I screamed and ran toward them, but Tate beat me there.

He was pulling on Mark, trying to wedge his hands between Mark's naked back and the vines. It wasn't doing any good. She was holding him there with her magic, and there was no budging him. It had been less than thirty seconds, but Mark's body was convulsing, and his eyes were unfocused.

"I wonder how long it will take the poison to kill him like this? My guess is, not much longer," the Queen sneered, and Ash rushed to her side.

She looked completely unconcerned as he took her face in his hands. Haughty even, like she was waiting for an apology.

Leaning toward her, he said, "Sleep, Crystal."

She looked shocked and tried to pull away, but he wouldn't let her. He spoke again, "Sleep, Crystal."

She went limp, and Ash let go of her. As she fell, Tate held Mark; he'd passed out. Tate's hands and arms were swollen and red from the vines.

I helped him lower Mark to the ground and saw that Tate's injuries were nothing compared to Mark's. He looked like he'd been whipped. Red slashes cut through his skin in a terrible unending maze, and blood pooled in the deep welts. He wasn't breathing.

My stomach sank. "Oh, no, Mark! Wake up. Wake up!" I shook him and rubbed his cheek.

Tears blurred my vision and dripped from my face. Tate pushed me aside and rolled him over.

"His back!" I yelled as I cringed. Nothing should touch that back, especially the dirty ground.

"His back doesn't matter if he's not breathing." Tate had his ear over Mark's mouth, listening for breath. He touched his neck, "His pulse is faint."

I was overcome with gratitude. Tate knew what he was doing! I want to scream, fix him! But I'd already wasted precious seconds freaking out. He leaned over and put his mouth on Mark's, pinching his nose shut; he started to breathe for him.

Why didn't I do that? I should have known to check for a pulse and help him breathe. I'd never felt so useless, sitting there wringing my hands, trying not to scream.

Ash wrapped his arms around me and pulled me back. "This isn't your fault. Let's give them room to work."

I hadn't even noticed Hedera. She was next to Tate, watching him try to breathe life back into my best friend. Her vines did this, and she was just standing there. I knew she didn't mean for him to get hurt, but that wasn't stopping my anger.

"What's she going to do?" I asked.

"Nothing, until Tate gets him breathing. She's ready to help, though; she wants to. The only person to blame here is the Queen."

Hedera must have heard him because she looked at me with the saddest expression, "I've never wanted to hurt anyone."

I just gawked at her. I knew I should say, it's not your fault, it's OK, but it wasn't. I squeezed my eyes shut. I couldn't stand seeing Mark like that; it wasn't fair.

The sounds were no better. I listened to Tate breathing for him. Between breaths, I heard him talking, quietly begging him to wake up, "Come on, Mark. You're supposed to be with me. Please, wake up."

I could tell he was crying, and my heart broke even more. Finally, a rough wheezing breath reached my ears. Mark's eyes were still closed, but his chest was moving on its own. He was breathing!

Tate held his face, "Look at me, say something."

It took a few more rough breaths, but finally, Mark cracked his eyes open. He looked at Tate and whispered, "Hi."

Tate beamed through his tears, "Hello, my favorite." He pushed Mark's hair back and pressed his lips to his forehead.

It was so intimate and sweet it seemed like we shouldn't be watching, but I didn't care. He was alive, and I wasn't taking my eyes off of him.

Mark smiled up at Tate, but the smile turned into a wince of pain, "My back."

"Roll him over please, I need to see it," Hedera spoke quietly.

"Hold on, this is going to hurt, but she can help you," Tate told Mark.

He rolled him over, and Mark clenched his teeth to keep from yelling. Laying on his stomach, breathing heavily from the pain, Mark looked up at me. I scooted over to his side and took his hand.

His back looked worse. The blood had started to dry, and bits of leaves and dirt were pressed into it. It looked so painful it made my stomach ache.

"I'm so sorry, Mark," I was crying again.

"Stop, Jo. This isn't your fault." He was almost panting, and his face was pale. "I made them bring me. I wasn't going to leave you."

Hedera took an unusual looking leaf from her bag. It was long and oval-shaped, like a banana leaf, but it was dark purple and thick. She rubbed it between her hands while Tate picked the biggest bits of debris from Mark's back. He was going slowly, trying not to hurt him, but it was obviously getting worse.

"What's happening? Why is he in more pain now?" I asked.

Hedera tore the leaf's tip off and started to squeeze the thick gel from it onto Mark's back. "Now that he's breathing, the poison is spreading more quickly. This will draw it out. It will hurt, though," she said the last part quietly like she didn't want him to know.

Mark was squeezing my hand, and when I looked at his face, I could see he already knew. His jaw was clenched shut again, he was sweating, and his lips were pressed together like he was forcing himself to be quiet.

She had most of his back covered in the clear goo. There were places where it turned red from his blood, but I could see something bright yellow starting to swirl through it.

"That's the poison. It's working." Hedera looked relieved.

She started tearing the edge off the leaf all the way around. I wondered if it was something to do to busy her nervous hands or if there was a reason for it when I realized Mark's back wasn't moving anymore. He'd stopped breathing again, and his eyes were closed.

"Mark!" I yelled, and his eyes popped open.

Tate moved to see Mark's face. Mark looked at me when he took his next shuddering breath. He didn't open his mouth or unclench his jaw, but he raised his eyebrows in question.

"You stopped breathing again! You scared me!"

He said, "Hurts," quickly, between his teeth before squeezing his lips back together.

Tate moved to my side and reached for his hand. I scooted back to give him space where Mark could see him.

Leaning down, he said, "It should be over soon. We're safe here. Hedera said the Queen has her guards watching the exits. You don't have to work so hard to be quiet."

He pushed Mark's hair back from his sweaty face and leaned down to kiss his cheek. "I can't imagine how much this is hurting. I didn't have any open skin for the poison to get in, and my hands are still painful."

Mark made a sound and let go of Tate.

"No, don't," he laced his fingers with Mark's, and they just stared at each other. Tate stretched out next to him, so they were face to face. "You don't have to be so tough. We already know how brave you are."

Mark grimaced. It was as close to a smile as he seemed capable of. They were gazing at each other, and I looked away. I realized what Mark meant when he said Ash and I give each other gooey looks; they were definitely being gooey.

Ash stood a few feet behind me, leaning on a tree, and I went over to him. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, love, just getting some space. There was nothing I could do to help, and the emotions were getting overwhelming."

"I'm sorry," I reached up and pulled his face down to mine. "I didn't think about how all of this would affect you."

He shook his head, "I don't want you to worry about that."

"But I can help you if I know it's getting to be too much." Wrapping my arms around him, I rested my head against his chest and tried to relax.

I focused on the way he called me love and the explosion of tingles it brought. That reminded me of last night.

He told me he loved me, that he'd known within a few days of meeting me. He said he understood if I wasn't ready to say it yet.

I told him I didn't know as fast as he did. I knew I liked him pretty quickly, but love took me a little longer.

He'd asked, "Does that mean you know you love me now?"

I nodded, "I love you."

Thinking about that brought on a whole new rush of warm feelings. Ash leaned down and kissed my neck, bringing my thoughts back to now.

"Thank you," he whispered in my ear.

"For what?"

"For loving me."

"You don't have to thank me," I shook my head.

Smiling, he said, "Maybe not, but I am grateful." I thought of when he said that after our first kiss and smiled.

"Look," he turned me around to watch Hedera working on Mark, "I think she's almost done."

Hedera was using the inside of the leaf she'd torn open to wipe the gel off Mark's back. He seemed to be breathing normally, and I hoped that meant the pain was going away.

Walking over, we sat on the ground behind Tate. He was still lying next to Mark so they could look at each other.

Who would have thought Tate, the cocky super flirt, was so sweet? It was obvious they really cared about each other.

Mark's back looked so much better after she wiped all the gunk off. All the blood and some of the swelling was gone. He still had open slashes, but they weren't nearly as inflamed. She'd helped him a lot, and I felt bad about being mad at her.

When she looked up, I gave her a little smile and a nod, "Thank you, Hedera, he looks so much better."

She smiled, "I'm glad I could help. He'll need to rest for a bit before he tries to get up. We should be safe here, as long as Crystal stays asleep."

She looked at Ash, and he said, "She'll be asleep for a long while unless I wake her. I won't."

"Good," Hedera nodded before getting up and walking toward the creek.

I watched her for a few seconds, cleaning her hands and doing something with the little pouches on her belt. Turning my attention to Mark, I saw that his eyes were closed, he was breathing, and Tate was watching him, so I knew I didn't need to worry.

I decided to ask Ash some questions I didn't get to last night. Wrapping my arms around his, I leaned into him while we watched our friends.

"Why does your talent work differently with different people?"

"What do you mean?"

"When we were fighting those guards, you pulled Citrine close to tell her to sleep, but she went down fast. Tate only took one try, but he fought it for a few seconds and kept his eyes open. The Queen took two tries, and it seemed harder, but you can knock me out over the phone."

He looked down, but I could see the crooked smile on his lips, "I didn't realize you knew I'd made you sleep."

"I didn't until I heard you knock Tate out. You said, sleep, brother, and I remembered when I was sick, and we were on the phone you said, sleep, love. That was the night you were in my dream with me."

"I wanted to see you," he grinned. "You're asking why it was easier to make you sleep?"

I nodded.

"Our gifts work better on humans; you don't have any natural resistance. So, I could make you sleep even over the phone."

"OK. Why did it work slower on Tate than Citrine?"

"Tate's much stronger than her, both physically and magically. She doesn't have a gift that I know of, and Tate's gift is strong."

"So the Queen must have a strong gift then."

Tate sat up without letting go of Mark's hand. Turning to us, he said, "She's right. Why did it take two tries? Her gift isn't strong."

Ash shook his head, "I've thought for a while that she's hiding something. If moving people and things one at a time was her only gift, I would have been able to put her out easily. I think she has a gift for self-preservation."

Tate looked as confused as I felt. "What does that mean?"

"I think she can slow or block other's gifts from working on her. She seems to have a way of knowing who agrees with her and who doesn't. She has a way of making powerful friends."

"Maybe she can sway people to her opinion," Tate nodded excitedly. "That would make sense. I never understood how the Seer could choose her after being loyal to Queen Ember all those years."

"If she could make people like her, why would she need Ash? Couldn't she just make every one like her?" I asked.

They were quiet, thinking about that when Hedera came back to join us. She sat on the other side of Mark and studied his back.

"Maybe it's like her talent for throwing people around, and she can only do it to one person at a time," I suggested.

Ash looked at me with surprise and then to Tate, "That could be it. Maybe none of her talents are strong; she just has several."

Tate nodded, but he was watching Hedera, "That would make sense. What is it, Hedera? Do you see something wrong?"