Healing didn't take long at that point. Jacob was exhausted and almost overflowing with the drugs, but his body still knew what it was doing. Skin previously separated now began to seal at the same time the organ was returning to its proper place and reattaching. Jacob's breath stuttered at the hand in his hair, eyes shooting open to stare at the Reaper in fearful confusion. That didn't hurt—and by now, Jacob knew hurt—although it seemed like it was supposed to. It was strangely soothing and Jacob's head swam trying to put it together with everything else.

"Who gets to say what the balance is?" she replied. It seemed no one else was willing to speak, trapped in the silence of their inevitable dooms. She stood, hands clenched into trembling fists at her side. "We could make our own kind of balance if only war and disease were rendered useless."