***
She heard Aleissande before she saw her. Her shouts of pain echoed throughout the dark hallway in the bowels of the Affinities Complex. How they even managed to get her down the winding staircase and into one of the small rooms was a mystery until she took a closer look at Cole in the torchlight that illuminated the hallway. His arms were smeared with blood, as was his leather-clad torso and chest.
“You carried her?” Josie asked as they rushed toward the end of the hallway. The shouts were growing louder.
“I’m quite strong, you know,” Cole remarked lightly.
That tightness in her chest loosened slightly at the familiarity of Cole being Cole. Gods, she was so glad he’d survived.
They pushed through the thick driftwood door, which was doing little to keep Aleissande’s pained noises quiet. A quick glance told Josie it was an ordinary training room, just one that was smaller and tucked away in a corridor with no windows. Torches lit the space, casting a bright glow on the table that had been dragged to the center of the room.
A woman stood hunched over it, healing light spilling from her palms while Natali stood beside her, a grave look on their face as they held a bloodied rag in their hands.
Aleissande was prone on the table, her body writhing in pain.
Josie rushed forward, her hands hovering uselessly over Aleissande. The general’s golden skin had turned a sickly gray, a thin sheen of sweat coating her face like sea mist.
“What can I do?” Josie asked the healer as she searched for a way to staunch the blood. Cole grabbed a spare rag andpressed it to where Aleissande’s fighting leathers were ripped at her thigh, adding pressure with Natali.
“Keep her still so she doesn’t bleed out,” the Anima ordered. Her hands were pressed against Aleissande’s stomach, her healing light pouring into a wound there that sent rivulets of crimson blood over her hands. “Distract her.”
Josie grabbed Aleissande’s shoulders, using her strength to pin her to the table as Aleissande screamed.
“Can’t you give her something for the pain?” Josie asked desperately, her heart racing as she watched Aleissande’s eyes roll toward the back of her head. She’d never seen the general look so fragile, so close to death.
“No time,” the Anima answered. Her power continued to mend the wound to Aleissande’s stomach, and Aleissande’s face went even whiter as she dipped her chin to watch the healer work.
“No,” Josie commanded, her hand cupping Aleissande’s face and forcing her gaze to her. “Focus on me.”
Aleissande’s chest rattled as she tried to suck in a breath, but it was cut short, a frantic pant bursting from her.
Josie grabbed the general’s hand and squeezed.
“Breathe, Aleissande,” Josie urged, tightening her grip until she could feel the bones in Aleissande’s hand shift against the press of her fingers. “Breathe.”
Aleissande’s jaw clenched, but her hold on Josie’s hand tightened, that haze in her eyes clearing slightly as she sucked in a sharp inhale.
“Good,” Josie soothed.
A tear slipped traitorously over Aleissande’s sharp cheek bone, and Josie brushed it away with her thumb.
Distract her.
“Did you repay the one who did this to you?” she asked, her arm shaking as Aleissande squeezed, and squeezed, and squeezed.
“Going to avenge me, princess?” Aleissande wheezed,tears cresting over her lids as the healer sent another bright pulse of light into the wound. Josie’s fingers wove through her blond hair, gripping the back of her skull tight as she fought to hold her still.
She would gladly take a sword to whoever had caused this.
“Always doubting my abilities,” she murmured instead. Her hand ached under Aleissande’s grip, her arm shaking with the force she used to squeeze back, but she didn’t dare let go.
“I don’t…” Aleissande rasped. Her lips, usually a rosy pink, were white and cracked, and they pulled tight as she let out a pained sound. “Doubt you.”
“A first,” Josie teased, her voice trembling as Aleissande’s eyes went hazy. The general blinked, her lips moving silently before she found her words.
“Not a first.”
“Almost done here,” the healer reassured as she continued to knit the gash at her abdomen together. “Keep applying pressure to that leg,” she ordered Natali and Cole. “I’ll heal that next.”
