Lore’s plum-colored hair is spread over his leg with her head nestled in his lap. Her wound is clearly visible and still bleeding. My gut twists until I feel bile burn the back of my throat.
“What do you need?” I ask the healer.
“Has she had any more seizures?” She looks at Egan instead of answering me, and he quickly shakes his head. “That’s good.” She pulls a bottle filled with clear liquid from her bag with a tip that looks like a bent straw. “We need to flush the wound to get as much of the poison out of her as we can. You’ll need to hold her down. Then we pray.”
My head falls forward, and my eyes get all blurry.
“Hello! Hello?” someone calls from downstairs.
I spin and rush from the room, thinking I might escape the sight of Lore splayed out and bleeding on the floor, but it’s burned into the back of my mind.
Melva is peeking into the kitchen when I make it downstairs. She jumps when I say, “She’s upstairs.” I turn back around immediately after speaking so I can return to my nightmare.
Once we make it into the attic, the witch kneels by Lore’s head and pulls a small bottle from her pocket. “What is that?” I surge forward before she can pour it into Lore’s mouth.
“Her best hope at survival.”
CHAPTER28
Lore
A cough jolts me awake.My chest is heaving as if I’ve been hacking for a while, but I don’t have any memory of it. Fingers trace across my forehead, and I struggle to open my eyes. “Lore.” The urgency in Cyrus’ tone has me fighting harder.
Something is definitely wrong.
“Shh, shh, it’s okay,” he soothes, and I feel pressure on my arms holding me in place, even though I’m barely moving. Unbidden, the memory of Modeus getting hit in the chest with a curse plays in my head like I’m witnessing it all over again. My chest aches, and a strangled sound comes from my throat when I try to speak his name. Where is he? Why don’t I hear or feel him?
“I’m going to put her back under. Her heart rate and blood pressure are too high,” an unfamiliar voice says, and I try to tell them no, but the pinch in my arm comes before I have the strength to fight it.
Lips touch my ear as everything slows. I hear Egan breathing, telling me he’s with me, but then everything is dark.
Egan
The first time Lore stirred,I convinced myself everything would be okay, that she’d be up and back to herself in no time, but that was days ago and not much has changed.
Every time she tries to wake up, the healer insists Lore needs to be sedated again the second she grows agitated. It was almost a relief the first few times she got restless, especially when she called for Modeus and he wasn’t there to answer her, but I can’t watch her eyes glaze over again before they fall closed.
Lore is a fighter, and they are stealing that from her every time they fill her veins with shit.
There’s a knock on the door before it’s slowly pushed open. The same dark-haired healer who flushed Lore’s wound peers into our bedroom. Her plastic smile is brittle. If she knew what I wanted to do to her for not healing Lore, she would be running instead of slinking into the room under the guise of checking on my mate.
I hold up the sign I made earlier this morning. “No more” is etched across the paper in bold print. I hate that I have to communicate with her at all, but I’m not letting her dose Lore again, and this is the only warning she gets.
“She’s getting better,” the girl promises, but I haven’t seen any improvement. All Lore does is sleep. I flick the paper out of my hand, and it flutters to the floor face up. The healer backs out of the doorway, probably to go tattle on me to Cyrus, but I’ve had enough of his shit too. Maybe I’ll tie him to a chair and put the needle inhisvein.
I sink lower on the bed until I’m lying next to Lore. She’s already positioned on her side, so it’s easy to pull her hand over and place it against my chest. Her touch is the only thing that brings me any solace. My mind is a chaotic place filled with what-ifs I never want to explore, but that’s better than closing my eyes and seeing Lore with the knife in her stomach.
“She needs the medicine, Egan,” Cyrus says before he’s even fully through the door. I stare straight at the ceiling and shut him out as he continues to blather. We did it his way, now it’s time for mine.
* * *
Egan
Lore’s finger twitches.I jerk my head up, spying Cyrus, who hasn’t left the room since he entered hours earlier, but at least he stopped talking. I send a warning look in his direction. The gargoyle may be a worthy opponent, but he’s still no match for me, nor do I want to hurt him.
Lore moves again and lets out a small groan, but it’s not the kind I like to hear coming from her. Cyrus inches over to the bed. I’m tempted to haul Lore into my lap, but I know he’s worried about her too. As long as he doesn’t call for the healer, I’ll permit him to stay.
Lore’s eyelids flutter, and she draws in a deep breath. I can smell the medicine in her body when she exhales, disguising her natural scent. Her heart rate rises until it’s nearly a hum.
