Chapter 21
Caspian
“Keira!” Caspian bellowed, her name echoing off the mountains.
He couldn’t understand what had just happened. He couldn’t understand how it had happened. Keira had just fallen to the ground. Keira had just saved his life. Her body was lying limp in the snow. How was it possible?
Caspian launched to his feet as the creature loomed over her, jaws gaping. It didn’t matter how. Something instinctual had come over his body, driving him forward.
Without hesitation, Caspian plunged his sword through the base of the monster’s skull. It twitched and writhed until he forced the blade deeper. The creature went limp, his sword still protruding from its corpse, forgotten.
Caspian was already kneeling in the snow at Keira’s side. Part of him had doubted his own eyes, wondered if he’d conjured her in a moment of panic, but no. It was her. Beyond any doubt. He studied her face, the wound on her chest that was bleeding liberally into the snow.
“Keira, I’m here,” Caspian said, cupping her head in his hands. Tears were flooding his vision. Her name rolled from his tongue like a foreign word, unspoken for so long. But then her green eyes fluttered open. “Tell me what to do. Tell me how to fix this.”
She would know what to do- She was so smart. She had to know the answer. All she had to do was say it and then, Fate willing, he’d move the cursed mountains to do it.
“I’m-” She coughed wetly only to wheeze and fight for air.
“No!” He was saying it again and again. He’d encountered enough death to recognize the sound of it in her lungs, the distance growing in her eyes. Somehow he’d stepped into a nightmare. It was the only way he could explain how Keira was here, now, dying in his arms.
She fought for breath, murmuring something indiscernible. It didn’t even sound like words. Caspian watched her, desperately trying to understand before he realized; it wasn’t words. It was a spell.
Suddenly Keira gasped, taking in a full, unhindered breath.
“Keira?” He studied her, smoothing back her hair again and again. She was still weak, but she was breathing.
Her eyes fell heavily closed and did not open again.
“No.” Caspian shook her. “Are you with me? Keira!” He squeezed her hand, stroked her cheeks, anything to coax her back to him.
“I’m sorry, Caspian.” Her lips barely moved to form the unmistakable words.
He shook his head. “You don’t have to be sorry. You’re here. Just stay with me.”
He studied her features, unable to breathe as he searched for any sign of life within them.
With trembling fingers, he felt her pulse.
A great sigh escaped him as he felt her blood flowing beneath her skin.
He pulled back her coat to inspect the wound.
Whatever she had done had not been enough to heal the injury completely, but it had stopped the bleeding. Caspian allowed himself an even breath.
Keira was alive. He pulled her against his chest, not caring that his clothes were becoming stained with her blood.
His eyes scanned the mountains. He needed to find her shelter, somewhere safe to heal.
He planted a kiss on her forehead, long and full of promises, before he stood, cradling her in his arms.
Keira was alive.
Caspian poked at the fire, sending sparks spitting into the darkness of the cave.
The fire illuminated the stone walls with its warm glow, but beyond the mouth, the world was swallowed by the night.
When he had first found this place, the scattered bones and shed quills had been enough to signify that this had been the creature’s den.
With its former occupant now disposed of, it should be a relatively safe refuge for the time being.
It was warm enough, shielded from the icy winds.
More importantly the ceiling was high enough to host a fire without filling the cavern with smoke.
After a time, the flames had chased away the lingering smell of carrion.
Caspian looked again at Keira’s still form beside him. She hadn’t moved. Not even a twitch since he’d settled her into his bedroll. He’d tended to her the best he knew how, leaving her side only to retrieve their supplies.
It didn’t seem like nearly enough. He was fortunate she’d been able to work whatever magic had stopped the bleeding. Caspian had no more than a general idea of how to bandage such an injury, and little faith that it would have been enough. There had been so much blood…
Now, the wound had scabbed, but the skin surrounding it was tainted and black.
There was venom in her blood, and it was spreading.
He’d done everything he could think of to manage that, which wasn’t much.
Anxiety rippled through him, the knowledge that Keira would know what to do.
She could fix this; he was sure of it. He just needed her to wake up.
She should have let it sting him.
Caspian rested his head in his hands, rubbing his face.
He didn’t understand why she’d pushed him out of the way.
But this was only one more in a steadily growing list of questions flurrying through his mind.
There was so much he didn’t understand about her choices.
It was clear to him that there was no Erin.
She’d lied to him, used her magic to disguise herself somehow.
But why? And why had she come back now? None of it made any sense.
Yet at the same time, so much was brought to light. He understood now why he was so drawn to her. Something deep within him must have known her, from her voice, her mannerisms. For a long while he contemplated whether part of him had seen through her illusion from the beginning.
She’d asked him about the war… about the person he’d lost. Caspian sighed, studying Keira’s face. He had a million questions to ask her. But none of them mattered if he couldn’t fix this.
Her expression tensed, and then she was still again.
Caspian knelt beside her. His hand felt her brow. It was burning with fever.
Keira stirred again in discomfort.
He removed his cloak which had been acting as a blanket.
Beneath it, her clothes clung to her body with sweat.
Worse, the blackness was spreading through her veins, up her neck, across her chest. He stilled, powerlessness overwhelming him.
He had to bring down the fever, Caspian told himself, forcing a thought of reason through his panic stricken mind.
He kissed her brow hastily. “I’ll be back,” Caspian whispered.