She spasmed and moaned but I kept breathing for her. Drowning her in air. Fighting with the grim reaper because no way in hell was I giving her to him.
She convulsed.
Pushing her onto her side, I patted her back as another trickle of water came up. But then blood followed. She coughed—a thick river of blackened crimson that torrented over her lips and stained the leaf-littered ground.
Ice flashed in her spilled blood, killing everything.
A tearing sensation ripped through my chest.
I doubled over with it—my heart threatening to burst with despair.
She choked on more blood, the black thickness becoming frothy instead. Pink bubbles painted her lips before rolling down her cheeks. She moaned and flopped onto her back.
My eyes caught on her legs. On the way they stayed crossed and...unnatural.
No...
My stomach hollowed out.
My gaze dragged upward, slow and unwilling, cataloguing the damage I’d refused to see. Her back was kinked, the line of her spine no longer straight but...broken. Deep abrasions sliced into her from where the whirlpool had chewed her up and spat her out. One side of her torso was punctured—ragged and dark, bubbling with blood each time she tried to suck in a painful breath.
“Fuck, fuck,fuck!” My hands hovered, terrified to touch her in case I made it worse. And I’d thrown her over a goddamn tree! I’d hit her. I’d made things a thousand times worse. Even if I had the best doctor in the world—even if they operated immediately—they wouldn’t be able to save her.
An animalistic sound tore free.
I’d failed her. Left her to suffer and—
Her chest hitched as she choked for breath. Her lungs made a wet, rattling sound as more pink foam appeared on her lips. Every part of her quaked as she entered the death throes...everything twitched apart from her useless legs.
My throat closed as I fought the urge to cry.
I hadn’t cried since I was thirteen, yet now...even sobbing wouldn’t relieve the catastrophic helplessness I felt at watching the girl I’d fallen irreversibly in love with...die.
My cracked hands balled.
No.
I wouldn’t accept this.
I wouldneveraccept a world where she didn’t exist.
Grabbing the nearest rock, I dragged it fatally deep along the underside of my charred forearm. I snagged on the stitches that’d stopped me bleeding in the bed and breakfast. I tore open everything. I would happily die here...trading my life for hers.
Blood poured free—thick and luminous, gleaming scarlet-gold as it splashed hot and fast to the ground. Little flames appeared where it landed, igniting the decaying leaves. Theyshrivelled into ash a moment later, killed by whatever lurked in my veins.
Rolling her over, ignoring how her legs refused to cooperate, I pressed my arm against the hole in her side—the hole popping and wheezing with every fading breath.
She cried out as my blood mingled with hers, dripping inside her—going straight to the source of her death.
She twitched as my blood took over.
She groaned as it started to work—little plumes of smoke rising from the puncture between her ribs. She tried to get away but with a broken back, she didn’t have a choice as I grabbed her soul with both hands and yanked her back from the netherworld.
Only once enough blood had filled her damaged lung did I move to other areas.
I fed golden-red into the slashes on her chest, her arms, her cheek. Shifting closer, I brought my arm to my mouth and sucked.
Hot, scalding copper drowned my tongue, my life-force pumping out far too fast. I turned lightheaded and weak, but I’d give it all to her if it worked.
