Aimilia staggered to her feet and smiled, hoping she looked better than she felt, but considering the way her chiton was no longer distinguishable from her red cloak, she doubted it.
Then an arm went around her back and someone was pulling her good arm over their shoulder and escorting Aimilia off the stage floor. She blinked and startled to see it was Uncle Cyprian. “What—What are you doing helping me?”
“You were sportsmanlike enough to rush to Commander Eleni’s aid. Do you think you’re the only one who wants to win without seeing any of their family die?”
Aimilia’s vision was swimming. “I’m not dying.”
“If you were capable of swallowing your pride for five seconds, first of all, we wouldn’t even be here in the first place, so I won’t bother asking again. Just be quiet and let me get you to the healers before you pass out in front of everyone.”
Aimilia let out a soft huff as he helped her make her way out of sight. “Thanks.”
“I didn’t realize you remembered manners.”
Aimilia’s eyes rolled into the back of her skull.
Chapter 50
NIKIAS
“Nikias, what was the point of all this if you won’t let me actually prove what I’m capable of? Forget it, you’ve ruined it regardless. Why couldn’t you just let me go on my own?”
“How could I let you go without me? I’m not trying to ruin this. I’m just trying to—No. I’m sorry. Go ahead, take the front. It’s your mission. I’ll be at the back. If you need me, I’m just a shout away.”
There was so much blood.
The stone floor of the strange Sordes temple was more red than gray as Nikias raced across it, Runai fighting all around him. There was a wicked, sharp laugh in the air, but Nikias didn’t care. All he cared about was the blonde woman, sprawled out on the stone ahead of him, his name on her wrist and his heart forever in her hands.
It had been too quiet, that’s what had him running in in the first place, but then the scream that had torn through the eerie silence moments later echoed in his head even as she was silent and still now.
“Faustina!” His voice tore through the air, but it was drowned out by the shouts and cries of the Runai and the Sordes. “Faustina!”
But she didn’t respond.
Her eyes were open and she had one hand pressed against her stomach, and Nikias wanted the red all around her to be her commander’s cloak, but it was too dark. It was moving and growing larger with each second.
Nikias ran for what felt like years, the distance between him and his beloved never closing until finally he crashed to his knees in the pool of blood. “Faustina? Hold on, it’ll be alright. Where are you hurt?”
Faustina’s eyes focused on him as he hovered over her, eyes trying to find the source of the blood. “N—Nik?—”
He reached up and cradled her face in his hands. “I’m right here,amata. I’m here. I’ve got you. Everything is going to be alright.”
It wouldn’t.
He couldn’t find the source of the wound, and he was a terrible healer. Where was their troop’s healer?
Vitae kept flying around them, the battle still raging on.
His hands were coated in her blood. He couldn’t find the wound. There were too many. Which one mattered the most? Faustina screamed again as he searched for the worst of them, and he cried out his apologies until he finally lifted her into his arms. He took her cloak, pressing it to the wound on her throat, trying to apply pressure without choking her as he held her. Her neck was bleeding the most, but the deep gash in her side wasn’t helping matters, not to mention the angle her leg was twisted in a way that no bone could naturally be.
One of her hands found his cloak, curling into the fabric at his shoulder as he cradled her close. “It’s—” Faustina coughed up blood. “—no use.”
That couldn’t be true.
“No! Just—hold on? Faustina, I know you can fight. You need to keep fighting!” Nikias looked back over her and blanched again. “You need to hold on. A real healer is going to be here any second.”
Faustina took rattling, desperate breaths against him.
“Listen to me,amata. I promise you, if you can just hold on little longer, everything will be alright—no, better! I’ll be better! A healer is going to fix you and then we’re going to go back to Areator, and it’s going to be different this time, I promise.”
