Amaris threw Theodoric the other piece. “Tie it around your nose and mouth when we’re near them. If it’s as deadly as you say it is, we don’t need anyone else contracting it.”
She pushed through the library doors and turned, but he grabbed the collar of her shirt and pulled her the other way. “This way,” he said, taking the lead.
“Who’s the patient?”
“My cousin, Esaias,” he answered, his voice cracking.
Amaris stumbled at the break in his tough demeanor, but she didn’t stop as she chased after him.
He halted outside his cousin’s door with his hand wrapped around the handle.
“What are you waiting for?” Amaris blurted out, needing to see the scrying fever for herself.
“You must prepare yourself for what you’re about to see. It can be shocking,” he whispered.
“Oh, please.” She waved him off. “I’ve seen worse.”
She likely had, but she was curious if it was about to be some new disease or if it was something as simple as the chickenpox.
She tugged the cloth over her mouth and nose as Theodoric pushed open the door. Even through the thick piece of linen, the all-too-familiar smell of sickness hit her. The one where someone had been lying in bed with a nonstop fever and a hint of puke. She didn’t feel the need to wrinkle her nose, though, or gag at the familiar stench.
A woman with rich umber skin sat by his side. Her dark hair ran down her back in tight curls and fell over her shoulder as she leaned and muttered into Esaias’s ear.
“What do you want now, Onika?” he groaned.
Onika narrowed her honey-colored eyes at him, but their parallel to the sweet nectar stopped there with her glower. She pulled the damp compress from his forehead, which earned her a begrudging grunt.
“He’s been awake since you left,” Onika said, standing and striding through the room. She stopped and leaned closer to whisper before she departed. “But I think it’s spreading.”
“What’s spreading?” Amaris asked.
“Who’s that?” Esaias attempted to sit up. He smiled as he caught sight of Amaris but winced with the little effort and fell back to the bed. “Atleast I can gaze upon a beautiful sight before I die.”
“What are your symptoms?” Amaris ignored his pathetic excuse for flirting and pulled back the covers. She gasped.
“That,” Esaias coughed.
“And a nasty cough,” Amaris added.
Esaias’s wheeze at the end of it meant the small passages in his lungs were starting to tighten. That might have been the least of his worries though. Amaris couldn’t avert her eyes from the black streaks spreading across his body like arcs of electricity.
“The rash, I assume?”
Esaias snatched the blanket from her grasp and hugged it up to his chin. “I’m freezing.”
Amaris moved to his wall of expansive windows, drawing back the golden curtains.
“What are you doing?” Esaias groaned, pulling the blanket over his face.
“Fresh air.” Amaris felt around the sill for the mechanism and unlatched the window. It was identical to the ones in her room.
Theodoric gave her a side-eye. “You figured that out quickly.”
Amaris returned a nefarious grin with a shoulder shrug.
“What will that do?” Esaias coughed.
“First of all, it’ll bring fresh air for you in this stifling room with that wretched cough,” she said before striding to the door.
