The Silvia Saga: Boxset

Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve

Dara

The front door slams shut. I stand up and race toward the stairs. Placing my hand against the railing, I look down to find Harland and Declan at the bottom of the stairs. Harlan runs a hand over his face, and I race down the stairs meeting them at the bottom.

“Something’s off with the water at the waterfall. Jolie’s taken a sample to a healer’s house now to test. We should get some answers soon,” Harlan rushes out before I get a chance to open my mouth to ask.

Declan looks hopeful as he passes me. He places a kiss to my forehead then he goes in to see his mother. She hasn’t moved much in the time they were gone. She mostly slept but tossed and turned every now and then. From the way her brows were drawn together, I could tell she was in pain, but she didn’t want to say anything. She doesn’t want us to worry even more.

“Want to train?” Harlan asks. He pulls me into his chest, and I melt into his embrace. His heart beats rapidly against my ear, I look up into his chocolate-brown eyes and smile. “I’m going to surprise you and say yes. I need to do something useful while we wait for Jolie to come back,” I say with a sigh.

Harlan presses a kiss into my hair. “You never stop surprising me, Dara, and I hope you don’t stop.”

“You know I won’t.” He laughs, taking my hand in his. We move down the stairs and into the training room. Harlan lets go, moving toward the stereo he presses play and ‘Warrior by Beth Crowley’ echoes through the space. The corner of my mouth lifts, it’s perfect. Harlan starts jogging around the perimeter of the red mat and I follow him. My thoughts are filled with so many questions about Jolie. Have the test results come back? Are we going to find a cure in time? We go around and around the edge of the mat until I can’t go any further. I stop, bracing my hands on my knees, breathing in and out rapidly. Harlan stops in front of me acting completely normal like running that fast and far hasn’t affected him.

“I don’t think I’ll ever be fit enough that running doesn’t hurt,” I groan and Harlan laughs. “Some people just aren’t cut out for running. Don’t be too hard on yourself.”

Yeah, and I’m one of those people. Definitely. Harlan sets up a circuit, and for the next hour we work through it together. I spend the whole time worrying and finding it hard to concentrate. We pack up, place all the weights back on the shelves and head back up the stairs. We hit the final step just as the front door swings open and Jolie yells something.

I stop in my tracks, reading the worry written all over her face. It doesn’t look good.Declan and Blair come storming down the stairs. Blair beelines for me pulling me into his embrace.

“Good news or bad first?” she asks, moving farther into the living room.Blair pulls me toward the couch and I fall onto his lap.

“Bad first, always,” Oliver says, joining us from the kitchen.

“Alicia from down the road just passed away. She had the same symptoms as Mum and the others,” Jolie says, wiping a tear from her cheek.

I never met her but losing someone from our village hurts. Blair reaches out, pulling me back into his chest, hugging me. I hold onto his arm then rub up and down, trying to give him comfort.

“The water has been contaminated with a toxin that’s affecting everyone who consumes or comes in contact with it. It’s not known to be a bacteria that grows here, which means we believe someone planted it,” Jolie continues.

“One guess who that would be,” Declan growls beside me.

“It makes sense. It’s the easiest way to get rid of everyone—poison one of our water supplies. Lucky that we haven’t had to refill our tank for a little while, otherwise we would all be falling ill.” Harlan shakes his head in disgust.

Another win to James, contaminating our water supply to kill us off one by one.

“He’s going to pay for this,” Blair barks, tightening his grip around my stomach.

“Make sure everyone gets rid of their water and gets a fresh batch from our tanks. Have you got anything that will kill the bacteria and bring it back to normal?” Harlan asks Jolie, getting straight to business.

“The healers are trying to come up with a remedy as we speak to fix the water and help heal others affected. It may take a little bit of time to get it right though,” Jolie explains.

But we don’t have that much time on our hands especially since someone’s life has already been claimed. James is going down for that, amongst the other shit on the list I have to get back at him for. My shit list will be ever-growing until I finish him once and for all.

The next few days go by painfully slowly. We spend our time training, looking after Anna, and getting updates from the healers. It’s like everything’s happening in slow motion while we wait for news. Everyone’s been on high alert, always watching our backs, waiting for James to make another move to destroy us. We’ve lost another two lives to the virus, which just adds to the pressure of getting a cure ready. We can’t lose any more friends; we have to pull through. I won’t let James bring us down any further. With changing over the water supply to our tanks we haven’t seen anyone else infected, which is some good news at least.

I haven’t seen Jolie much at all during the past week—only for magic training. Every other second, she’s been at a healer’s house, working on the cure.

I’m sitting by Anna’s bed, feeding her some soup; she isn’t well at all. Her colouring is white, and she’s lost a lot of weight. It pains me to look at her because she isn’t the beautiful, healthy woman I remember; she’s frail. But we are close to getting a cure, and I know she’ll pull through; she has to.

This whole situation only adds to the urgency of finding the final stone. But I haven’t had any visions of its whereabouts as I had previously with Emerald and Topaz. The Ruby stone will be the hardest to find and the most important one.

Jolie has been working with me to try to bring forth a vision of where Ruby may be, but we haven’t had any luck so far. As each day goes by, I’m growing more and more anxious to end this once and for all. This needs to end.

A hand lands on my shoulder, shocking me out of my thoughts. Oliver starts massaging, trying to loosen my knots. I place the bowl of soup on the bedside table.

“Is she eating much?” he quietly asks over my shoulder.

I shrug, unsure of how to respond. Do I tell him the truth? That she hasn’t been putting much down at all? Or lie to try to ease the pain?

“Doing okay,” I say, not exactly lying. He would be na?ve not to see it in her now—how weak she’s become just in the last few days.

He wraps his arms tightly around me, placing a kiss to the back of my neck.

Someone knocks on the door just as I place some soup into Anna’s mouth. She opens slightly, letting the liquid slide down her throat. At least she’s getting something in her belly.

Albert and Harlan come in, Albert sits down on Anna’s other side, holding her hand. He hasn’t left her much the past couple of days, afraid that something will happen if he does. He’s been getting Harlan to update him on what’s happening in the village and giving back orders to him to pass on to his men. Harlan watches his mother but doesn’t come any closer.

“We need to have a meeting to discuss our next move. Do you want to do it here or downstairs?” Harlan directs the question to his father.

Harlan’s arms are tightly crossed, his jaw tight, and he doesn’t look toward his mother. He can’t stand seeing anyone he loves in pain; I think that’s why he hasn’t visited her much, whereas Blair, Jolie, and Oliver visit their mother at least twice a day to just sit and talk to her and keep her company. Jolie prefers coming late at night, once she’s done everything she can to help with the cure. Declan is a bit like Harlan; he still visits but not much.

“Let’s do it downstairs. This isn’t the right place,” Albert says, getting up and giving Anna one last look. I don’t miss the pain that crosses his eyes.If Anna doesn’t pull through it’s going to tear this family apart and I just can’t imagine life without her in it. She’s our rock.