My head in line with his face I croaked out. “Why did you do that?”
“On the gods, the moon, and the stars,” he rasped, sucking in a wet, bloody breath, “I willalwaysprotect you.”
A jolt of something like electricity shot through my body.
My vision briefly returned to where our blood mixed before refocusing on his fading expression.
Think, Maeve, think.
Sawyer's eyes were fogging over, turning white like the dying Draemornians had.
“I’m sorry,” he repeated, blinking up towards the veil before dropping his gaze onto me. “Please.Pleasetake me beyond the veil. I know I don’t deserve it. Butplease.”
His life began to flicker throughout my mind. It faded in and out, showing small glimpses of his memories.
“He’s dying,” I breathed out, my eyes frantically meeting Sebastian’s.
He fell to his own knees, replacing my hands with his larger ones to try and fill the hole in Sawyer's stomach. Blood seeped through his fingers despite the pressure.
“Keep trying, Pia!” I urged, feeling nothing other than pure panic.
“I’m—” Sawyer garbled, coughing out a mouthful of dark, clotted blood.
No.
“Sawyer, please. You can’t leave me. Not like this. You’re my best friend. I need you,” I wailed, my sweaty hair caking to my forehead as I dropped it to his shoulder.
“I’m sorry.” His voice was nothing more than a wet rumble through a wave of fresh blood.
“Stop apologizing,” I snapped, pulling my head back and deepening my brows. “You’re gonna be fine.”
Tears filled his eyes as he shook his head, his bloody lips quivering. “This is why I needed to tell you. I’mso gladI got to tell you.”
Another one of his memories flashed before my eyes—the moment we met. When he showed me to the throne room after the Jewel-Light Ceremony last year. The memory took me out of reality as quickly as it brought me back.
I glanced over my shoulder to see Sebastian shaking his head, while Pia kneeled behind him, no longer even attempting to heal the impossible wound.
Sawyer’s eyes began to close. I gripped his cheeks, forcing them back open. “Come on, Sawyer. Archer will be back any minute.”
His jaw went slack, his cheekbones relaxing as the rest of his face fell utterly still and he lost consciousness.
He was fading fast, and though I was unsure if it would work, and it would undoubtedly go against the gods balance, I had to try. He couldn't die. Not for me.
“Sawyer.” I shook him awake and drew his eyes into mine, then called upon the power within my constellastones, feeling their familiar tingle.
“Do not die.”
“Areyou going to go see him?” Sebastian asked me when I finally emerged from the bath.
The water had run red from all of the blood that had stained my skin, but I still stayed until it turned ice cold.
Wringing my hair out into my towel, I nodded. “How is he?”
“Stable. Thanks to you.” He kicked his boots off, having just returned to our room from his time in the infirmary ward.
While he and Kohen had carried Sawyer to the infirmary, I came up here to clean up, per Sebastian's request. I had been covered head to toe in the blood of my friend.
“You were right, Venay had left some salves which helped a good amount. Archer woke some of the other healers who were able to help Pia close the wound after doing some detail work on the inside. I guess part of his intestine was perforated andleaking, so they had to clean that up.” He ran a hand through his hair, matted down with sweat. “They don’t even know what part of the Hykah caused an injury that bad.”
