22. Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Two
Nik
After seeing Grace safely back to her home, Nik waited for Ali to return so they could eat together. He set the carry-out container filled with grilled chicken, vegetable mix, and roasted potatoes on the table and lay on the bed to relax a bit.
It wouldn’t take long for Ali to return, but it had been a long day, and the bed was far more comfortable than the hard chairs at the table.
He positioned one arm behind his head and stared at the ceiling.
The small wall light fixture hummed, and he closed his eyes to block out the warm illumination.
His body sank into the mattress and he slowly drifted to sleep.
When Nik woke, the room was significantly darker than before. It took his eyes a moment to adjust, and he blindly felt the bed beside him, but Ali’s side was empty.
“Ali?” he whispered.
He sat up quickly and stumbled to turn on a lamp.
His mind went into a tailspin; he needed to see with his own eyes that she wasn’t where she was supposed to be.
The light fell over the bedroom and even though he felt her absence, some part of him hoped he was wrong and that she’d be on her side of the bed, blocking her eyes from the brightness and wondering why he’d gotten up so suddenly.
But she wasn’t there.
“Ali?” he called again. The door to the bathroom was cracked, and he pushed it open to look inside. No sign of her there, either. There were only so many places she could be, and with one glance into their dining area, he’d searched all of them.
Nik quickly found his shoes. Having fallen asleep by accident, he was still dressed in the clothes he’d worn that day. He wasn’t sure how late it was, but she should’ve been home by now. So he set off for the last place he knew she’d been: the council chamber.
The halls were entirely empty, and Nik opted to run rather than walk.
It wasn’t like Ali to stay out so late, especially when she was just supposed to be grabbing her belongings.
It set him on edge and forced him to move faster.
He didn’t have to think twice about directions.
Since he’d taken over as Grace’s guard, he’d visited the council chamber many times and knew the way by heart.
He was nearly there when he considered that the council chamber was usually locked and he didn’t have Ali or Grace with him to use their key, but as he turned down the hall that led to the chamber, he noticed the door was already cracked open.
He sprinted toward it, and when he opened the door, his chest tightened and his stomach did a somersault. A dim light from the hall barely illuminated the figure of a lifeless Ali lying on the floor.
Nik dropped to his knees and pulled Ali to his lap, gently tapping her cheek. “Wake up, Ali. Wake up!”
What the fuck had happened here?
“Ali!” he screamed, but her head bobbed in his hold and her eyes remained closed. Terror gripped his heart as he carefully put two fingers to her neck and checked for a pulse. He felt the faint beat of her heart and let out a sigh of relief. She was alive, but for how much longer?
Wasting no time, he wrapped one around her shoulders and tucked the other under her knees and ran back down the hall toward the medical facilities.
As he ran, he looked down at her every so often, checking to see if she’d woken up, but she remained motionless except for the rocking of her body with each step he took.
Please don’t die, he silently pleaded.
His eyes drifted to the bump on her belly, and he silently said another prayer to the gods that never listened.
Don’t let either of them die.
When he made it to the medical chamber, he found a young woman with her eyes half closed, drawing little symbols on a notepad in boredom. At the sound of his heavy footsteps, the woman looked up and her eyes went wide.
“What happened?” she asked, stepping out from behind the front desk and crossing the room to knock on a door.
Nik knew from prior visits that it led to a spare bedroom that the medics used when they weren’t busy.
A place for one of them to stay overnight so someone was always available. After a brief pause, she knocked again.
“I don’t know,” he told the woman. “I found her like this. She’s not waking up.” He did his best to remain calm, but his voice shook.
Right as she was about to knock again, the door opened and an older woman appeared, blinking at the light. She looked between Nik and the receptionist and suddenly was wide awake. “Bring her this way,” she said, pulling her black hair into a ponytail.
She led them down a hall and into the first available room.
Nik gave her Ali’s name and answered her questions as best he could.
Which was painful, since he had no clue how Ali had wound up this way.
He couldn’t offer anything to help the medic determine what was wrong with her or what needed to be done.
“She’s pregnant,” he told her. “And she has anxiety and possibly depression, too.” They’d never explicitly talked about it, but Nik had a hunch from her behavior throughout those months that Eli had been missing.
After everything she’d been through, it had made sense that she was having a hard time.
But even now that the two friends had been reunited, there were still days Nik could sense that shadow lingering beneath the surface, threatening to make an appearance again.
On those days, he held her and comforted her and waited for it to pass.
“I’m sorry. I don’t know much else about her medical history. ”
The door opened and a man with black hair that fell to his shoulders and warm brown skin walked through.
Nik recognized him as one of the former suitors, the one who didn’t show up to the second round.
The man rolled up his sleeves, ready to assist the medic.
She turned to face Nik. “Thank you. That’s helpful.
I’m Meg and this is Zeke. We’ll be taking good care of Ali, but I need you to return to the waiting room with Linsey so we can do our job. ”
Nik’s shoulders tensed. Ali was lying on a stiff bed, her small hand still frail and pale inside Nik’s grasp. The idea of letting her go made him sick. “I can’t stay?”
Meg shook her head. “I promise we will do everything we can. But we need to have zero distractions.”
He swallowed the lump in his throat and his eyes flicked to Zeke, who gave him a quick nod. Nik knew little about the man, other than he had stepped aside when he realized Grace was in love with someone else, and that alone gave him a few points in Nik’s eyes.
Nik took a few deep breaths and then gently rested Ali’s hand on the bed. He stepped back, and each inch felt like a dagger in his heart.
Linsey placed a hand on his back and he reluctantly allowed her to lead him out to the reception area to wait.
Nik had no idea how much time passed. His eyes felt heavy, but he never once let them close. He kept them fixed on the door he knew led to Ali’s room and strained his ears for any sign, whether it was good or bad.
Early in the morning, Linsey switched shifts with another worker and said she’d be back to check on him. It wasn’t too long before she returned with fresh donuts and two familiar faces.
Nik leaped to his feet as Grace threw her arms around him. “What happened?” she asked.
He shuddered and hardly recognized his own voice. “I don’t know.”
Grace released him and looked him over with tear-filled eyes. Behind her, Eli looked pale and distressed. Nik wished he had good news to give them, but he hadn’t heard anything from the medics.
Frustration consumed him, and he clasped his hands behind his head before running them down his face.
“Something happened when she went to get her bag. I don’t know what.
I…I fell asleep and when I woke up, she still wasn’t back, so I went searching for her and… ” He struggled to finish his sentence.
And she was lying lifeless on the floor.
Grace rubbed his arm in comfort. “How long have you been waiting? Linsey ran into us in the hall and told us there was an emergency, but she didn’t say much else.”
The previous night’s desk attendant had left again, leaving behind the donuts and cups that likely contained juice or tea.
“I’m not sure how long I’ve been here, but they’ve been in that room and I haven’t gotten any updates.”
Grace nodded and looked toward Eli. They stared as if having a silent conversation, but Nik was too tired to decipher its meaning.
“I’ll be right back,” Grace said, moving toward the patient rooms.
“It’s the first room on the left,” he told her. As future Lady of Berland, Grace held more sway than he did. If he couldn’t see Ali, maybe Grace could at least get an update on her condition.
The lack of information was driving him mad. He pushed his hands through his hair again and huffed in aggravation.
“Why don’t you sit down?” Eli said, offering a donut to Nik.
Nik shook his head. His throat was dry, and he didn’t think he could eat anything right now. He’d likely just throw it back up.
But he did sit down, his elbows resting on his knees and his head tucked between his hands.
Eli’s hand awkwardly patted his shoulder. “It’ll be okay. Ali is a fighter.”
“What if she isn’t?” Nik’s voice cracked, and he squeezed the bridge of his nose. Something burned behind his eyes and he needed it to go away.
“Don’t let your head go there, man.” Eli sighed. “I don’t know if it helps at all, but the fact that they haven’t come out and updated you is a good thing. It means she’s still in there fighting. Trust that they’ve got her.”
Words that Nik would’ve told anyone else in his position, but hearing them didn’t make it any easier. He was being asked to put his faith in complete strangers. Leave his entire world in their hands.
“You sure you don’t want something to eat?
” Eli asked. He was trying so hard to comfort Nik, even if he was doing a horrible job at it.
Nik couldn’t fault him, though. That he was even trying at all was a testament to his character.
Who would’ve thought the man who had once hated him for taking his girl would be the one sitting here now, consoling him while that same girl’s fate hung by a thread?
“Thank you,” Nik said, finally taking the donut from Eli, along with a glass of juice to wash it down.
He’d barely taken his first bite when raised voices sounded from Ali’s room. Eli and Nik exchanged glances. It didn’t sound like panic or something he should be alarmed about.
It sounded like Grace wasn’t taking no for an answer.
For the first time in hours, a smile spread across Nik’s face. “She’s a force to be reckoned with,” he told Eli.
Eli grinned. “I know.”
The door swung open and Grace appeared, waving at them. “You can come in now.”
For fuck’s sake. If Nik had known all it would take was Grace’s persuasion, he would’ve gone to find her hours ago. He tossed his barely touched donut back into the paper bag and left the glass of juice on an end table.
He crossed the waiting room in three long strides and met Grace in the hall, Eli following closely behind.
When he entered Ali’s room, he wasn’t sure if he wanted to break down and sob or exhale in relief.
She was still asleep, but the color had returned to her cheeks.
She looked as though she was merely dreaming peacefully with a soft smile on her face.
He ached to hold her in his arms, but he still wasn’t certain of her condition.
“She’s stable for now,” Meg said, sensing his questions. “We still want to monitor her, though.”
A sound like a fake cough came from Grace, and Meg grimaced.
“I apologize for keeping you waiting so long. We wanted to wait until she woke up before bothering you. Shouldn’t be too much longer now.”
Bother him? Like the past few hours hadn’t been some of the most agonizing moments of his life. Did she have any clue how close he had been to breaking down the door?
“Did you figure out what happened?” he demanded.
Meg walked around Ali’s bed and held up one of her hands.
The fingertips looked darker than the rest of her skin, like a rash.
He hadn’t noticed it in the darkness of the council chamber.
“She was poisoned. That reddish tint is from helberries—a deadly fruit that grows in the depths of the mountain. It’s actually a fungus and not a fruit at all, but it looks like a bundle of berries…
Anyway, you didn’t come for an etymology lesson. Where did you say you found her?”
“Um…” Nik hesitated. If this poisoning was intentional, should he share where Ali had been? Was that meant to be Grace or Ellen lying on the bed in front of him?
Grace noticed and stepped in for him. “That’s not necessary, is it?”
Irritation crossed Meg’s face. “I only want to make sure there isn’t a bloom of it anywhere children could stumble into.
We haven’t had a helberry poisoning in years and I’d rather not have another one.
” She turned to face Nik again. “We have an antidote, but supplies are limited, as you can imagine. It’s a good thing you got her here when you did.
Any later and I’m not sure the antidote would’ve been much help. ”
Nik swallowed hard, a million thoughts racing through his mind.
Kicking himself for falling asleep and not realizing she was missing sooner.
He should’ve come with her in the first place to retrieve her things.
His stomach turned at the possibility that Ali could’ve died, and he sat on the side of her bed, taking her hand in his.
He ran his thumb over the back of her hand in small circles, wishing he could see her pretty brown eyes and know for certain that she would be okay.
“I can assure you that we will investigate the incident and make sure any helberry growths are taken care of,” Grace said.
In the corner, Zeke cleared his throat. “There’s something else.”
Nik’s chest tightened, and he wasn’t sure why, but instinct had his eyes flitting to Ali’s stomach. He shook his head and furrowed his brows, his relief that Ali was okay coming to an abrupt halt. “Please…”
He knew. Somehow, he just knew. A space had been carved out in his chest, and it felt painfully hollow. He knew, but he wished he didn’t.
He waited for Zeke to speak, to deny what he felt in his heart. He begged the gods to reverse time and let him have another chance, a moment for him to change the unbearable course they’d taken and stop Ali from making the one choice that would change their future.
“Don’t…”
Don’t say it.
Zeke’s eyes were full of apologies, but he opened his mouth to speak anyway. Nik’s ears rang as the words hit him like bullets. “We couldn’t save the baby.”