23. Riel
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
RIEL
I heard the moment her heart stopped beating, and mine nearly stopped with it. Every muscle in my body tensed in response, ready to leap into action the moment Seersthri gave the word. I glanced up at the mender across from me. She held Avery’s hand, seemingly unbothered by the way the rest of her arm dangled there, lifeless. With her other hand, she rapped two fingers against the edge of the cot to the time of a heartbeat, and her lips moved silently as she counted.
“Give it another moment,” Seersthri murmured, her full eyebrows coming together in concentration. “Let her body realize what’s happening. A few more beats.”
Goddess, how could I have agreed to this? Every second that passed was agony. I shifted my weight, needing to direct this restless energy somewhere, anywhere.
“Now?” I asked through gritted teeth.
“Not yet.”
How long had it been already? Ten seconds? Surely that was more than enough?
Avery was so still and pale, not at all like her usual, exuberant self. Trying to keep my thoughts positive, I recalled her smiling face instead. The way the corners of her eyes crinkled and her little nose scrunched up when I teased her, equal parts amused and affronted. The happy sounds she made when she was proud of herself for doing something right. Her orange hair backlit by the dawn when we headed out for lessons in the early mornings.
Seersthri inhaled, and my hands were hovering above Avery before she could speak.
“Now?” I demanded.
“Now,” she agreed, giving me an abrupt nod.
Mana leapt to my call, changing from formless energy to light and heat in an instant. The hair on my arms stood on end and my palms warmed as it flowed through my body, drawing from my inner magic along the way to become electricity. The pulse of power left me without delay, crashing into Avery’s chest. Her limbs jerked from the force of it, and I winced, worried that I had gone too far. I looked to Seersthri.
Her expression hadn’t changed. And Avery didn’t move, her chest still quiet underneath my hands. Her lips were turning blue.
“Once more,” Seersthri said.
Everything felt too fast and too slow all at once. The realization came from someplace far, far away: she wasn’t moving.
It didn’t work.
No. No, that can’t be. Where did I go wrong?
Letting this develop between us in the first place, even knowing the danger my family posed to her. Not sending her back to her people as soon as her condition improved. Bringing her here and letting her attempt this foolish, foolish thing. I couldn’t deny that it was my selfishness that brought us to this point. I knew the risks; it was my responsibility to communicate them properly. I thought I could have this… this one thing, and now…
“Second prince!”
I was ripped back to the present. The look Seersthri fixed me with could have drained a lesser man of all fight. As it was, it affected me to my core, and my spine snapped straight.
“Do it now, or the girl dies,” she said, not one to mince words.
It’s now or never.
I drew mana like a man possessed, so much so quickly that my veins strained to bear it. The discomfort was nothing compared to the thought of losing her. Channeling mana into lightning was second nature, but I didn’t dare look away, didn’t dare breathe lest my concentration falter. My hands shook—from effort or fear, I didn’t know—as they delivered another shock to Avery’s cooling body.
“Again,” Seersthri commanded.
All of me shook now, and with a vengeance. “It didn’t… she’s…”
“ Again ,” Seersthri enunciated, yellow eyes flashing with resolve. “ More .”
I summoned everything left in me and prayed. When the current surged from me to Avery, even Seersthri flinched at the intensity of it. Blue light filled the small room, illuminating every corner for a brief moment before winking out. I blinked rapidly to clear my vision.
Seersthri brought her free hand up, casually brushed a ruffled lock of Avery’s hair over her shoulder, and resumed stroking her arm with gentle, steady movements.
At first, the only sound I could make out was my own breathing as my lungs worked for air. But then came the slightest flutter from underneath my hands, as delicate as kainna wings and more precious than the sweetest ballad. Slowly at first, hesitantly, parts of me that had shattered into pieces began to put themselves back together.
And then Avery breathed in, and I was whole once more.