“Raiden, you shouldn’t be up.”Daya knelt hastily on the bed.
His brows dipped in confusion.Raiden.He was Raiden.She was his saving anaiah.He remembered her but not why he was with her.“I’m fine.”
“You’ve been feverish and comatose.Stay still a moment, let me check your wounds.The one on your stomach is badly infected.”
He flinched as icy hands grazed into his skin and began to shake from the chill.Air stung as his bandages were removed.Glass clinked as she pulled out jars of healing remedies, opening one.
The familiar scent of medicinal herbs hit him.
Auburn hair glinted in the sun as the teenage girl pulled him to the side of the training field.She plunked a turquoise bottle with a familiar scrawling label in his hand.“For the cut on your arm.You thought I didn’t notice you were favoring your left?Put this on it for a week.”
Surprise and guilt whispered through him.She took on so much as it was.Even though she was younger than him, the mantle of family responsibility had landed solely on her delicate shoulders.
“I didn’t want to bother you.”
Stressed eyes that matched the hue of the glass softened as she smiled.“Worrying about you is worse.I’ll always help you.But work on your blocking, I’d rather not have to reattach your arm next time.We already have one reckless person in the family, and it’s not you.”
“Is that… ontheara cream?”he asked.
“You’ve used it?”
“Yes.”
“I’m putting it on all your wounds, not just the infected one.Not taking any chances.”
Daya’s fingers ran over his arm and shoulder wounds, rubbing the healing salve into them.The sting startled him, and he fought to keep from jerking away from her hold.She moved onto the smaller surface wound at his chest, which was older and didn’t sting at all from contact.
His lungs struggled to maintain a rhythm as the pain in his arm intensified.
“Can’t breathe,” he gasped.“Burns like poison.”
Her hand stilled.“You’ve been poisoned before?”
It was on the tip of his tongue to confirm that he had, but he couldn’t come up with details as the pain cloaked his mind.“Think so.”
“It’s slow acting, if it is poison.You were fine while we traveled.What poison has a delay like that?”
“Mavish root.”
His mind flashed with the blue Zamyran plant that was sometimes used to coat blade tips.The words took all the effort he had left, and he collapsed, sinking onto the bed.Blade, not arrow.That seemed significant, but the thought dissolved.
Worsening chills wracked his body.He’d been injured many times, but this fiery pain combined with fever was unique.His body remembered even if his mind struggled.
Taking a big scoop of the healing cream, Daya’s hand hovered over the large wound on his side, the other braced on along the border of the infected skin.
“Deep breaths, Raiden.Breathe the pain out.”
It took a second for the herbs to make contact with the infection, but when they did, lightning struck the wound.Bright, hot jolts ran through his side and into his body, searing his insides as they went.The healing essence entered his bloodstream and traced through his veins, seeking out and battling the poison.
He lurched forward when the need to move overwhelmed him, refusing to give in to the desire to pull away.Daya’s hand stroked over his uninjured neck and shoulder.
“You’re okay.Just breathe with me, Raiden.”
Giving in, he fell toward her, his head falling on her shoulder.She was stronger than he was right now, would keep them safe until he could help her.The thought soothed his soul even as his body broke and shook.
Daya, he repeated her name over and over, his talisman.
“I’m not going to let you die, Raiden.”
