“I… can’t,” I rasped.
Ryker’s body stiffened around me as he cradled me against his chest. The familiar sensation of falling washed over me, letting me know we had disappeared inside his shadows.
My stomach didn’t do its usual tumble, and I knew at that moment I was on the brink of death.
“Odette!” Ryker roared, and I heard the elderly woman inhale.
“What’s happened to her?”
“Someone stabbed her. She’s losing too much blood, and I can’t stop it.”
“Poison?” she asked.
I tried to shake my head, but I had no idea if I had succeeded.
“I don’t know,” Ryker said, not bothering to hide his panic. “But you need to heal her.”
Shuffling sounded from the side of the room as Odette moved closer. “Oh, my.”
“Don’t just stand there, help her.” Ryker’s voice cracked, and a wave of fear washed over me.
But the feeling didn’t belong to me. Ryker’s emotions flooded the bond, and his desperation pulled me under, threatening to drown me.
My eyes fluttered open, and I watched as Odette scrambled for her satchel, knocking vials and dried herbs onto the blood-stained floor. Her hands shook, but she kept moving.
The bitter reek of rue filled the air, and I blinked, fighting the urge to slip into unconsciousness. From the corner of my eye, I saw Odette pour a thick, brown liquid into a goblet before returning to my side.
As she pressed the tumbler to my lips, she said, “Drink, Lady Cadence.”
When the tonic flooded my mouth, a sharp, bitter taste coated my tongue. It tasted like acid and death, but I forced myself to swallow it anyway.
Almost immediately, the world snapped into sharp focus. My pulse slowed, and my mind cleared. I could feel the wound knitting itself back together, flesh fusing.
Then panic seized me.
“No,” I said, shoving the next mouthful away. “You’ll kill me.”
“Hold her steady.” There was no mistaking the command in Odette’s tone, and I felt Ryker’s arms tighten around me.
My head lolled to the side, and I resisted the urge to vomit. “Stop.” The word sounded brittle, weak. “Please.”
“What is it, Cadence?” Ryker’s words were quiet, tender even. “Tell me what’s wrong.”
I inhaled a shaky breath. “I am bleeding internally. If you close the wound without stopping the bleed, I’ll drown in my own blood.”
Everything hurt, and it was an effort to get the words out.
“What do you need?”
“Help me sit up.”
Ryker didn’t hesitate. His hands went to my shoulders, steadying me as he lifted me upright. The pressure in my side was brutal, white-hot, and dizzying, but I bit down on the scream burning its way up my throat.
“Tell us what to do, Temptress,” he said, pressing a light kiss into my hair. “I’ll fucking do anything.”
A twisted, dark part of me was thrilled by the way he was falling apart, his panic spiking through the bond, a wild crackling energy that was barely held at bay.
“Just hold me steady.”
