Chapter 20
“Savaé! Stay with me. Please. Just hold on a little longer…”
A smoky voice curls around me like a velvety embrace.
I know that voice. Fuck. I guess I ended up in Emberhell after all, to be tortured by S?las for eternity.
Seems a fitting punishment. At least he’s easy on the eyes; there’s always a silver lining if you’re willing to look for one, I suppose…
I hear a faint ripping sound as I start to drift off again.
“I’m sorry I have to break my promise to you.” S?las’ smoky voice drifts through my ears like a dream. He seems so far away…
My hazy mind catches on his words. I wonder which promise he’s going to break this time: touching or hurting me?
“Fuck!” I scream. The pressure of something wadded up is packed into the wound on my thigh. Okay, hurting me it is.
“I’m sorry. I have to pack the wound to stop the bleeding. The tourniquet wasn’t enough. I don’t even fucking know how you’re alive right now. Can this thing breathe dragon fire?”
I’m fading through the pain. The call of peaceful darkness is luring me, the sultry voice of Lady Death singing my name. Beckoning me. I must be losing myself to hallucination… Who would be breathing dragon fire?
“Pits of Emberhell!” I screech. Searing heat courses over the wound on my thigh, burning away the haze of death.
Oh, I am definitely fucking alive. A shattering bellow erupts from my chest. Fire lashes through my veins, searing more than just my flesh.
Awakening me. The pain reforging very seams of my soul.
“This is not how I imagined I’d be making you scream. But screaming is good. Screaming means you’re alive.” His flirtatious voice is threaded with a nervous undertone.
I’m now awake enough to realize we’re moving, amidst a cloud of shadows.
I peer up to see S?las’ face chiseled with tension.
Fury and fear well in his tormented ocean eyes.
Massive arms tighten around me, cradled under my shoulders and legs.
I try to use what little strength I have left to push him off me.
“Let go! I am not some damsel who…” A wave of nausea curls my stomach, darkness creeping back in along the corners of my vision.
“Save your strength. You can kick the shit out of me later. But first, we need to get you to Kivi or Helios,” he replies.
His voice lowers to a feral growl. “Then you’re going to tell me who the fuck did this to you, or I will kill every last Fae in this cursed place until I find out my-fucking-self. ”
He doesn’t break my gaze as he says those last words.
Maybe it’s the blood loss, but he fucking lights a fire deep inside me as he says them.
I’ve never needed anyone’s protection. I don’t need his protection …
okay, maybe just to survive this particular shit day, I do.
And, to be totally honest, my half-dead self oddly doesn’t mind the possessive nature of his words.
The darkness inside me seems to revel in the idea of someone being willing to slaughter masses to keep me safe. What an odd feeling. Apparently, being this close to death is making me weak in more than just a physical sense.
I’m jolted from my thoughts as an orange figure appears on S?las’ shoulder.
I buck, reaching for him.
“Pip!” My weak cry expending the last bit of effort in me before darkness falls. The smell of blood, burning flesh, and spruce is the last thing I remember, as shadows consume us all.
I don’t know how much time passes, but I do remember familiar voices buzzing about me. Vague bits and pieces of conversations as I ebb in and out of consciousness.
“How the fuck did this happen?” Kissa hisses.
“How in Emberhell did you even find her?” Cinder broods. Feigning disinterest.
“How did she end up with a dragon burn?” Atlas inquires.
“Woah, look at these cool markings on her leg!” Fenwick pips.
“Her Aura is so faint. Are we sure she is going to make it?” Orion asks hesitantly.
“Please. Let her rest. She’s lost more blood than I can heal. The mycelium can mend tissue and bone; however, replacing blood is not within my abilities,” Kivi’s even-toned voice echoes.
Then there is quiet as I fall in and out of a slumber. Yet there’s warmth wrapped around my hand that never wavers. That warmth is a guiding light, a thread thin as spider silk, pulling me back from Lady Death’s siren call.
I swear, I hear a faint voice, a whisper vibrating along the thread, a note just to me.
“Come back to me, Luxsula.”
The words a humming tether as I fall into deep slumber once more.