Haruko was on the other side of the garden, covered in soot and ash, shaking her head.
Hellebore started to get to her feet, ready to race up to her lab to tear through her notes for a miracle, but then a hand curled into her leg, pulling her back down.
Taiyo was looking up at her. He whispered, “Stop, sunshine, please, just stop.”
“The eclipse will happen in a few minutes. I’ve got to try—”
“I didn’t come after you because I thought there was a chance you could save my life. I came after you because I couldn’t bear to pass without you being the last thing my eyes see.”
Hellebore crashed to the ashy ground beside him, eyes watering. A sob fell out of her throat as he pulled her into his arms. He gently shushed her as he pressed a kiss to her cheek and ran a hand up and down her back, comforting her when he had minutes left of life.
He whispered, “What’s all this for then? You don’t need to shed any tears for me. You’ve hidden your heart so well I never stood a chance of finding it. All the better anyway. It means I can’t break it as I go to the grave.”
Hellebore looked up, mouth opening, but then she spotted a window and a little potted iris sitting in the sunlight. There was still one left in the castle.
Their wedding iris. It was still in her lab.
Hellebore ripped herself out of his arms and took off running despite her husband’s protests.
He could thank her when he lived past the eclipse.
She tore through the castle until she reached the lab, grabbing the pot and the belt sitting on the table nearby. She looped it around her waist, depositing the vial of blood in one pouch and filling the others quickly with the equipment she needed for this insane idea.
Once she had it, she tucked the iris into the crook of her arm and raced back to the garden as the sun and moon inched closer together.
Haruko had taken Hellebore’s place by Taiyo’s side, and as she ran through the ash, she heard him calling her name.
Hellebore came crashing back to his side as the moon passed in front of the sun, and Taiyo opened his eyes. His voice was weak and broken as he spotted her carrying the iris. “Hellebore, please, stop.”
“What are you doing? Is one iris enough?” Haruko asked.
She ignored them both as she knelt beside him, reaching into her pouch and pulling out the vial of his blood from before the rot. She grabbed his shirt and ripped it open before pulling out a syringe and a small incision knife.
This definitely wasn’t sanitary, but if it would save his life, that’s what she would deal with.
Hellebore plucked the bloom of the iris and shoved it into her second syringe, scribbling a quick formula in her notebook with the ash and pushing her power into it, turning the petals into a liquid, brimming with the same kind of magic that was ebbing out of Taiyo, causing the gasping breaths coming from him. She filled the other syringe with his red blood.
As soon as the moon started to creep over the sun, Hellebore injected him with the iris’ serum. The iris’ magic took effect and his heart kept beating even as his connection to the sun weakened.
Now it was time for Hellebore’s real work.
She scribbled a new formula on her arm and started the work of purifying Taiyo’s blood. She took the syringe of blood and injected it into his arm. It was a slow process, with only a small fraction of pure blood for her to reference. As she focused on separating the rot from his blood, using the magic of the iris to keep the magic flowing through him, she cut the remainingstitches and used the wound as an exit for her to pull the rot out of him.
Black rot slowly came out, not just blood, and Hellebore breathed a little easier.
She could do this. She could save him.
At least… that’s what she thought until she noticed she wasn’t purifying his blood faster than the rot was contaminating it again.
And if she stopped, he would die.
“Hellebore! Is it working?”
Haruko clenched the ashy ground as she watched.
Hellebore took a deep breath. “Do you remember what happened when you and your healers tried to give Taiyo a transfusion?”
She’d read about it in his records, Haruko giving almost enough blood that it would kill her in the hopes the healers would be able to give him a transfusion large enough to save him.
