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“Come on, you can’t leave me,” she said, and charged again.

Nothing. Her whole body trembled violently as she tried more obscure spells. Added adrenaline. Magic spike spells. But he remained lifeless.

If she had been in a healing quadrant, she knew what would happen. Right now, another healer would come over, put a hand on her shoulder, and say what she could not: Time of death: 7:24.

That’s when she collapsed on his chest and the silence against her ear where a heartbeat used to be was the loudest emptiness she’d ever heard.

“Please,” she screamed through her tears. “Don’t leave me.”

All the calming white spells in the world couldn’t take away the panic in her now. She clung to him in desperation.

“I found you again. I can’t lose you.”

Mira cried violently, feeling the pain rip through her.

“I know how to help you now.” She hugged his chest tighter. “I know how to save you. Please. Don’t go where I can’t follow.”

Everything turned cold. The world seemed to have lost all of its warmth at once. She was drowning, sinking below the surface, and she’d never be able to come up again.

She screamed his name, hoping that if he could hear her on his way to the afterlife, he’d turn around.

“You promised…you promised you’d always come back to me.”

She gasped, but no air came to her burning lungs.

“It wasn’t your fault,” she sobbed against his lifeless body. “I took a potion. You’re not the reason I fell into a coma. Please, come back to me.”

The rational healer part of her brain told her there was nothing left to do.

Aidric Dawson had died of the incantation on his chest. It had slowly poisoned his body until his magic could no longer hold the darkness at bay. Dark Magic had come to collect its debt.

But her heart—her heart couldn’t accept it. She wanted him to return to her. To not leave her in this world alone.

Intent. She thought back to Obryn’s instructions.

What is it you truly want?

To bring Aidric back to life.

No, that wasn’t quite right. She wanted more than that. She wanted to save him. Because he deserved it. After everything he’d been through.

She sat up again, took a deep exhale, and tried to focus on a rare healing spell she had only ever read about. It was experimental, but she had nothing left to lose. They called it the borrow-a-heartbeat spell. For one beat, her heart would stop and go to him. It was a dangerous spell, which was why it was no longer performed after a few healers had died using it.

But she needed something stronger than electric shocks. The diagnostics spell for Aidric showed his heartbeat in a flat line.

She looked at his face where the dark veins stood out prominently against his pale skin.

“I’m going to save you, Aidric Dawson,” she said in a steady voice, because this time it was a promise. This time it was an oath.

She cast the spell. Blinding pain shot through her left arm and chest, and she gasped for air as her heart stopped for one beat and shot to his. For a second, she felt that beat, but then nothing again.

“Come on, Aidric.”

She did the spell again, knocking the wind out of her. His heart beat once more and then stalled again.

When she did the spell a third time, she closed her eyes and focused on her intent. On saving him. The man she loved with every fiber of her being.

She would give all of her heartbeats if it meant she could see his eyes open one last time. If she could tell him she loved him.