Chapter 28 : THE RACE FOR MAX — PART 2
"He's crashing!"
The medic's voice cut through my exhaustion like cold water. I pushed myself up from the floor where I'd collapsed, every muscle screaming protest, and staggered toward Max's cot.
The curse was gone — I'd consumed it, processed it, felt it burn through my system — but the physical damage remained. The wound in his abdomen had been too deep, too savage. Whatever blade the assassin had used was designed to kill even when the magic failed.
"His blood pressure's dropping." The medic's hands moved frantically over Max's small body. "Internal bleeding we missed. The curse must have masked the severity."
No. Not after everything. Not when I'd already—
"Move." I pushed the medic aside, ignoring her startled protest. My hands found Max's chest, feeling for the source of the damage.
There. A torn artery, hidden beneath tissue that had seemed intact. The curse had been clever — it hadn't just suppressed healing, it had hidden the true extent of the injury. Even with the curse removed, Max's body couldn't repair this fast enough.
Standard iratze wouldn't work. I'd already applied one during the curse extraction, and it was barely touching the damage.
"Sir, he needs a hospital. Real surgery—"
"He won't survive the trip."
Through the network, I felt the battle still raging — Jace at the eastern doors, Izzy securing the armory, Clary protecting the other children. No help coming. No time for alternatives.
The Gray Book marginalia.
The annotations I'd photographed in the Institute library, the ones nobody else could see. Among them had been alternative rune patterns — healing designs that went beyond standard iratze, that demanded more and gave more.
I'd never tried to use them. Never needed to. Never been desperate enough.
My stele touched my own arm, and I began to draw.
"What are you—"
The iratze started normal. The standard healing rune, the first thing every Shadowhunter learned. But I didn't stop at the traditional pattern. My hand kept moving, adding strokes that felt right even though I'd never practiced them. Lines that appeared in the marginalia, curves that the standard Gray Book had crossed out centuries ago.
The rune blazed to life.
Not golden. Not the warm amber of normal healing magic.
White. Pure, burning, impossibly bright.
Pain lanced through my arm as the evolved rune settled into my skin. The design was larger than a standard iratze, more complex, radiating with patterns that seemed to shift when I looked at them directly.
"By the Angel," someone whispered. One of the other Shadowhunters — a witness, drawn by the commotion.
I didn't have time to care about witnesses.
I pressed my marked arm against Max's chest and pushed.
The healing energy flowed out of me like water through a broken dam. Not the gentle trickle of standard rune magic — a torrent, demanding and absolute. I felt it enter Max's body, find the torn artery, and begin to repair.
My vision blurred. My hands shook. The cost was immense, far beyond anything I'd paid for normal abilities.
But Max's breathing steadied. The color returned to his cheeks. The wound in his abdomen, already closing from the first iratze, sealed completely. Healed to scars in seconds instead of days.
I collapsed against the bookshelf, barely conscious, watching through swimming vision as Max's eyes fluttered open.
"Alec?" His voice was thin but present. Alive. "What happened?"
"You're okay." The words came out slurred. "You're okay, Max."
"His vitals are stabilizing." The medic's voice held equal parts relief and horror. "I don't... that shouldn't be possible."
Footsteps. More witnesses arriving. I heard gasps, whispered prayers, the particular silence of people seeing something that broke their understanding of the world.
"Look at his rune," someone said. "That's not in the Gray Book."
"Heresy," another voice hissed. "That's heretical magic."
I looked down at my arm.
The evolved iratze hadn't faded like normal runes. It sat on my skin like a brand, glowing faintly with white light, patterns shifting in ways that made my own enhanced perception ache.
Permanent. I've changed my own runic lattice.
"Alec." Max's hand found mine, small fingers gripping with surprising strength. "You saved me."
"Yeah." I squeezed back, too exhausted to manage anything more complex. "I did."
The witnesses stared. The medics worked around me in careful silence. And somewhere in the building, the battle continued — but I couldn't find the strength to rejoin it.
Max was alive.
That had to be enough.
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