“I don’t know.”
Why didn’t she know? What was she doing? What was she feeling?
Hellebore and Taiyo made it back to their rooms in the dark. She should have never offered to come to this ball. She should have stayed silent and in the shadows of her lab.
She discarded the ballgown on the floor and started to pull on a nightgown, moving to do the buttons when her eyes flickered over to her iris, glowing dimly and illuminating the room.
She still had several buttons left when she saw it.
A small brown and yellow spot on one of the leaves of her iris.
Her knees hit the ground with a jarring thud as she dropped to them in front of the iris. Her mouth fell open, and a strange half-gasp, half-sob tore out of it before she could contain herself.
The door between their rooms slammed open. “Hellebore?”
But she couldn’t pull her gaze away from the Sunrise Iris, not even as her husband ran into the room. Her fingertips brushed the leaf as her vision blurred with the water spilling over them. “T—Taiyo—”
“What is it? Hellebore, what—” Taiyo rushed through the room, until she saw him freeze in the corner of her eye, catching himself on the bedpost. All he had still on were his trousers, his other finery discarded like hers.
She pulled her shaking hand away lest she do any more damage. A sob started rising again despite her best efforts to push it down. Her hand curled into her chest as she lost the fight against her tears.
His arms were around her once more. He pulled her into his chest, turning her head away from the iris.
“I’m sorry—Taiyo, I didn’t—Please, believe me, I didn’t—”
He clutched her to himself, hand rubbing up and down her spine as he gently shushed her, murmuring, “It’s not your fault, sunshine. I know. You did nothing wrong. It’s alright. I promise. Everything is going to be alright, you’ll see.”
Hellebore couldn’t find any more words; all that came out were wretched, keening sobs as Taiyo started rocking her. She buried her head against his chest, his skin warm against hers. She pressed her ear against his heart, sobbing with every painful, slow beat of his heart as it fought to push his blood through his body.
Was each beat just the seconds counting down until his time ran out?
Was trying to save him as hopeless an endeavor as trying to keep the iris from catching the rot?
Where had this agony come from? Why was the thought of losing him tearing her apart from the inside out?
How was she going to live if she failed to save him?
Chapter 20
Hellebore woke up the next morning like every other morning as of late, curled up in Taiyo’s arms, listening to his heartbeat. However, this time, when Taiyo ran his fingers through her hair and whispered her name, she did not respond.
She could not save him with useless tears. She could not turn his blood red again by almost kissing him. These feelings were distracting her, and he was the one who would pay the price.
If the pain she felt at failing the iris was any indication of what she would feel if he died…
Hellebore needed to put a stop to this now.
So it was for his sake she untangled herself from him with only a cold, “I need to get to the lab.”
“Hellebore—”
But she was already in her room, locking the door behind her.
Thankfully she did because she heard the knob rattle as she shed the nightgown she’d never even finished buttoning.
“Youlocked—Hellebore, can we just take a minute and talk? It’s not your fault! It was a miracle there was even an iris outthere that hadn’t caught the rot in the first place. It was only a matter of time before the rot reached it. You couldn’t have prevented it.”
She steeled her heart and focused on tucking her blouse into her waistband.
