But his eyes are clouding over from the fever, all of that excess energy creating a secondary layer inside of his body, making it harder to access. The tears are openly flowing down my face again, because I know there’s only one way to help him at this point.
And I’m not sure that I can bring myself to do it.
“I can’t,” he whispers, fisting the grass beside him, clearly trying. Sweat trickles through the pale blue hair at his temple as he closes his eyes, concentrating and trying.
It’s clear the moment that it clicks for Elorie, the color draining from her face. “No,” she murmurs in horror that matches my own. Turning a furious glare in my direction, she clenches a fist. “You’re lying! You just want to reclaim what I’ve siphoned from you out of spite.” Her eyes are turning manic, but by the way her gaze flits between us before wrapping an arm around her stomach, even she’s aware that she’s grasping at straws. “No.”
Cody thumps his head back against the tree trunk, opening his eyes with a look of calm resignation. “It’s okay,” he says to her, taking a few more breaths. “I’m okay.” But it’s what he doesn’t say that hurts more. Not that he’s okay, but that he’s okay with letting go, of finally getting the rest he’s been denied for so long.
Tears track down Elorie’s cheeks, glistening in the waning light. She’s tragically beautiful, everything you’d imagine in a fae queen; no glamour necessary. It’s just a shame that it takes a breaking heart for a bit of that to finally shine through.
“Help him.” She turns to me, hatred still burning away behind her tears.
I don’t move at first, and she’s suddenly there, blade to my throat as she hauls me up, shoving me at him and screaming. “Help him, damn it!”
I don’t bother stifling my sobs now, the look Cody gives me shattering my heart into pieces. There’s no fear in his eyes, just forgiveness. For what happened, for whatever might happen now. He simply gives me a small, sad smile before closing his eyes, trusting me implicitly when I haven’t done a damn thing to earn it.
My hands shake as I cup his jaw, the heat from his skin burning at my already sweaty palms. Leaning down, I gently press my lips to his forehead, lingering for as long as I can get away with; both to delay the inevitable, and as an apology.
The knife breaks skin as I lean in, and I ignore the warm beads of blood snaking down my skin, the way Elorie hovers behind me. Closing my eyes, I feel out the toxic overload of energy, the way it’s merging with whatshouldbe there until it’s a chaotic mess.
And I breathe.
A long, steady inhale, a slower exhale through my nose. Again and again, I try to mentally navigate through the lightning storm raging inside of him, severing only what I’m absolutely sure is volatile until I’m left with murkier waters to navigate, small static that easily blends into his innate energy.
I triple check every single molecule in his body, ensuring I didn’t damage an organ or nerve ending. Then I do another sweep, paranoid. Absolutely terrified, I open my eyes, pulling back to look at him.
His eyes are closed, the color gone from his face. His shallow breathing is gone, his chest still.
My hands cover my mouth as the air leaves my body, driving the blade deeper into my throat from the movement as my shoulders slump and silent tears run over my fingers.
When his eyes blink open and he sucks in a deep breath, I don’t even hesitate to smack his leg, lashing out in my relief before I throw my arms around him. Elorie removes the knife as I lunge forward, my face buried in his shoulder.
“You jerk,” I cry into his shoulder as he wraps an arm around my back. “Don’t scare me like that.”
He chuckles softly into my hair. “Like you would have passed up an opportunity as perfect as that.”
“So he’ll be alright?” Elorie reiterates and I pull away from Cody long enough to assess him again, just to be sure.
“Yeah, he should be okay now, I think.”
She offers him a hand to help him to his feet and the emotional rollercoaster I’m on sends looming dread pooling back into my stomach. I push myself off the ground, eyes locked on him. He releases her hand, face tight as he realizes she’s about to take him away too.
“Thank you.” My shock at her words has me glancing her way the same time I hear Dorian’s voice cry out in warning. Her hand falls on my shoulder as the other draws back to thrust the knife in her fist into my belly.
My back crashes into the tree from the impact, the breath knocked from my lungs, but the explosion of pain doesn’t come. I get a face full of pale blue hair, pinned between me and Elorie.
“No, no, no,” I cry, wrapping an arm around his chest to support him only to get a handful that I wasn’t expecting.
Elorie slumps in my arms and I sink to the ground with her, only to look up...and still see her standing there, a dagger sunk to the hilt in her stomach. I meet her hate filled, shocked gaze the same moment Atlas steps in behind her, drawing a blade quickly over her throat before she can recover.
Tilting the head of the body in my arms, I quickly press my wrist to their mouth, knowing blood will heal changelings far quicker than I can transfer energy, especially while my heart is hammering and I can barely tell which way is up. But they don’t bite into my flesh, and onyx eyes don’t meet mine.
Dorian’s bright blue eyes shine back at me as the illusion of Elorie starts to fade from his features, his blonde hair coming into view as he rattles in a breath and croaks, “Teleporting isn’t any better when you’re the one doing it.”
I don’t know how I even still have tears left in my body. Rather than answer him, I close my eyes, putting all of that energy I just siphoned from Cody to use. It’s far easier to heal a physical wound and I make quick work of patching Dorian up, pressing a palm over his stomach to keep as much blood in as possible until I’m done.
“Way to wait until the most dramatic moment possible to develop your ability.” I bend down to kiss him before lifting his shirt to ensure I healed the damage, my hand still wet with fresh blood and making me uneasy until I confirm with my own eyes.
