37. Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Nik
The center of town was mostly deserted, since almost everyone in Berland was attending the final round of the Rite. But there were a few places still open, serving drinks to those who didn’t want to sit and wait on the hard bleachers.
That was where Nik started. If Eamon was up to something shifty, a hidden corner in a dimly lit pub would be a great place to conduct business.
The first bar Nik came across was packed. People had to shout over one another in order to have a conversation and more than one person spilled a drink on him as he walked through the crowded hall. He wiped off his arm with a disgusted snarl.
Forcing his way through the horde of people was a difficult task. By the time he made it to the edge of the room, his cheeks were red with irritation and the sweltering heat coming off the mass of bodies.
He moved from table to table, checking for any sign of Eamon or Ali, but came up short. When he made it to the last table tucked inside an alcove, he pinched the bridge of his nose and groaned. The gentleman and woman sitting in the booth gave him a look before the latter asked if he needed help.
Nik could just imagine how he appeared—like a drunken slop, with sweaty, flushed skin and wide eyes searching for Ali. He probably looked lost and confused.
“No, I’m all right. Thank you, though,” he said over a round of laughter from the group next to him. Then he pushed his way back outside where he could breathe easy again.
The next two businesses he searched went almost identically to the first, though thankfully they were slightly less crowded. Both times, he found himself no closer to finding Ali or Eamon.
He headed toward the mountain at a slight jog, peeking inside various shops on his way but mostly finding them empty. Some of them were locked, and he didn’t even get the chance to search inside. He shouted Ali’s name and moved along when his call was met with silence.
Time slipped through his fingers. A feeling deep inside told him something was wrong. His heart pounded erratically, and he clutched his chest as his mind ran through every worst-case scenario.
What if she’d followed Eamon and found herself in trouble? Eamon was known to be violent and Nik didn’t trust him alone with Ali for even one second. What if he tried to hurt her? Or worse…
What if Nik was too late?
Inside the entry chamber, he made his way toward their home. He didn’t think she’d be there, especially if she’d been following Eamon, but a part of him hoped he had it all wrong. That she’d just forgotten something and had come home to grab it. That nothing was wrong at all.
The door flung open and Nik let it slam closed behind him.
“Ali,” he called frantically. Although their home only consisted of a kitchenette, a small bedroom, and an attached bathroom, Nik checked the entire space twice as if Ali might pop up from a hidden corner.
But she never did. She wasn’t at home.
Or the cafeteria.
Or the supply chamber.
Or the medic chamber.
He made one last attempt to find her in the wing that housed the council chamber but came up short there, too.
Of course, he couldn’t get into the locked chamber, so there was a chance she was inside, but when he called her name, she didn’t respond.
He had to force the image of her lying on the ground after being poisoned out of his mind.
Panic set in as Nik rushed back to the entry chamber. He wasn’t sure where to look next. Maybe the horse stables? Or the lake? One thing was for certain—he couldn’t wait idly while Ali was out there, possibly in danger.
His mind raced as he took the tunnel that led outside and back into the bright sun. He ran a hand through his disheveled hair, staring at the path while mentally making a list of all the places he could search.
He was so lost in his thought that when he looked up again and saw a blonde woman with red stains on her shirt and a haunted look on her face, he froze in disbelief.
“Ali?” he said softly, taking a tentative step forward. “What the hell happened?”
Ali’s bottom lip trembled, and her hands alternated between clenched fists and outstretched fingers. She opened her mouth to speak but erupted in a fit of coughing. She doubled over, barely getting a breath in between each burst of angry air.
Nik closed the gap between them and wrapped a hand around her waist. He rubbed soothing circles onto her back with his other one. “Deep breaths, Ali.”
But she continued to cough, and her cheeks went pale from the lack of oxygen. Without a second thought, he picked her up with one arm behind her knees and the other bracing her back.
Ali managed to get one deep inhale in before she struggled to breathe again. She grabbed the front of his shirt and looked at him with pleading eyes.
“Don’t worry, love. I’ve got you.” And then he ran as fast as he could to the medic chamber.
Ali wove in and out of consciousness on the way there, leaving Nik terrified that he would lose her this time.
This situation was way too similar to the last time he’d ushered her to the medical chamber.
The weight of her limp figure sent chills down his spine and made his feet feel heavy and numb at the same time.
After what felt like an eternity, Nik burst into the medical chamber, startling the young man at the front desk.
“Can I help you?” he asked.
“I need Meg,” he choked out.
“What happened?”
Nik wanted to leap across the desk to strangle the man. “I. Need. Meg.”
“She’s in with someone else right now, but if you sit for a moment, I can go—”
“I will not sit.” Nik’s voice had risen an entire octave. In his arms, Ali made an unintelligible noise, and he thanked god for the confirmation that she was still alive.
“Maybe you should go get Meg,” another voice broke in. Nik turned around to find Soren approaching the desk.
The young man at the desk looked alarmed by Nik’s manic expression and his outburst, and irritated by the arrival of Soren, who was taking Nik’s side. “One second.”
Soren came closer, frowning as he took in the sight of Ali. “What hap—”
Nik shook his head, cutting Soren off. He could hardly speak through his fear and desperation.
It took closer to twenty seconds, but when the receptionist came back, Meg was at his side. She took one look at Ali and her pleasant smile faded. She pointed down the hall. “Bring her here.”
Nik gave a curt nod to Soren before following Meg.
She led Nik to an unfamiliar room, but it looked identical to the one before with its pristine counter tops and floor, abrasive white lighting, and sterile atmosphere.
A plain wooden stool waited in the room’s corner, but Nik refused to sit, even after he laid Ali gently on the bed.
He stood with his hands laced behind his head while he waited for Meg to check Ali’s vital signs.
“I found her in the street like this,” he said. “She looked like she was in shock and then she just started coughing and couldn’t stop.”
“Her breathing is very faint,” Meg confirmed. “Is this her blood?” She lifted Ali’s shirt, searching for wounds, but her skin was untouched.
“I don’t know,” Nik said.
“It doesn’t appear to be,” Meg said, continuing her assessment. Her hand grazed Ali’s neck. “What’s this?”
A red rash had spread over her throat and extended past her shirt collar. He couldn’t recall if it had been there when he’d found her. Everything had happened so quickly. “Is that—”
“Helberries.” Meg stood and pulled out a drawer, sifting through until she found a vial, then punctured it with a needle to draw out its contents. “I’m not sure where your girlfriend keeps finding these things. I thought Grace was supposed to be handling this.”
His fiancé, but he didn’t bother correcting her.
Nik flinched when Meg brought the tip of the needle to Ali’s arm. “What is that?”
Meg didn’t take her eyes off of her steady hands. “I’m allowing you to stay because I don’t need another lecture from Grace. If you’d like to keep it that way, I suggest you don’t distract me while I’m working.”
Nik pursed his lips, but he held his breath as the needle pierced Ali’s skin. The liquid drained into her flesh and then Meg was pulling the needle back, applying pressure to the small puncture.
“How long does it take to work?” He couldn’t help himself. He needed to know if she was going to be out for hours like she had been the first time. Waiting for her to wake up had been torture, but at least she’d be okay.
“It won’t be as long as the last time. When you found her, she was still conscious, so I’m hopeful the toxin hasn’t had as much time to course through her system. Perhaps an hour or two?”
Nik’s shoulders relaxed and the heavy weight on his chest disappeared. An hour or two. He could survive that.
He pulled the stool closer to Ali’s bed and finally took a seat, reaching out to hold her hand.
“I have to check on another patient. If you need anything, let Brady at the front desk know.”
Nik nodded, and once Meg had left the room, he leaned in closer to Ali, kissing her cheek and brushing her hair back from her face. “You’ve got to stop doing this to me, babe.”
A short time later, Brady came to check on them, bringing Nik a glass of water. “Can I get you anything else?”
“I’m fine, thank you.”
While Nik waited, counting down the minutes until Ali woke, his mind wandered to the Rite. The race had to be half over by now. Was Eli winning?
He shook his head. How had he gotten to this place where he gave a shit about Eli?
It was just because Ali cared about him. Nik also considered Grace a friend and therefore wanted her to be happy as well.
It had nothing to do with a friendship blossoming between him and Eli. That was not possible.
At one point, he stood and began to pace near the foot of Ali’s bed. Waiting was not his strong suit. He cracked his knuckles and stretched his arms above his head, then returned to the stool, tapping his foot and reaching for Ali’s hand again.
He stroked the back of her hand with his thumb. “Come on, love,” he said softly. “Wake up.”
Her fingers curled around his hand ever so slightly. He thought he’d imagined it, but then it happened again, this time stronger.
“Nik,” she rasped.
“Ali.” Nik gingerly wrapped his arms around her and kissed her temple. He spoke her name with reverence. “Ali, I’m here.”
She coughed, and he pulled back, giving her space to breathe. Then he found his untouched glass of water and offered it to her, watching as she took a few sips and then returned the cup to him.
“What happened?” she asked.
“I was hoping you could tell me.”
“I remember walking out of the cave, and then you were there. But then…I was dizzy and everything was spinning…”
“What cave?”
She blinked a couple times, her eyes slowly clearing. “The cave with Eamon. I followed him from the Rite because I didn’t trust him. I knew he wouldn’t leave unless he had a good reason, and I wanted to know what that reason was.
“He led me back to the mountain, except we didn’t come in through the main entry chamber. There was a trail and then he disappeared into a narrow tunnel and I followed him there too.
“It was like nothing I’ve ever seen before, Nik. The helberries…that’s where they are. He’s been growing them under the mountain like his own hellish conservatory. They were everywhere.”
Her brows furrowed, and Nik wondered what was going on in her head. If she was recalling the image of the plant room. He needed to go there to see for himself—Grace, too—but that could wait until she was ready to return.
“What happened next? Where’s Eamon now?” If the blood on her shirt wasn’t hers, he had to assume it belonged to Eamon.
Ali looked down at her hands, wringing them in her lap. “I…I killed him.”
She was oddly calm for having just killed a man, but then, this wasn’t the first person she’d killed. Nik reached for her hands and held them still. “Whatever you did, I’m sure it was out of necessity.”
She looked at him with glassy eyes and nodded.
“It was. He would’ve killed me if I hadn’t gotten to him first. There were jars full of a slimy solution—like helberry jam.
I threw them at him and once they broke open…
well, you can imagine how he reacted. The poison spread quickly, but it wasn’t enough to take him out entirely.
He nearly hit me with helberry powder but missed.
I still inhaled quite a bit, though, which is how I suppose I wound up here.
” She looked around the room and took a steadying breath.
“You’re safe now,” he said, reassuring himself as much as her.
“For how long? I’m so tired of fighting.
Of looking over our shoulders and waiting for another attack.
” A tear escaped and trailed down her cheek.
“Eamon was right there in front of me. He couldn’t see because the helberries had gotten in his eyes.
I could’ve run. He could’ve survived with treatment like I did.
But I grabbed a pair of shears and stabbed him in the chest. I watched him take his last breath.
I killed him, Nik, and I don’t regret it. ”
Nik reached up to wipe away her stray tear. “There’s nothing to regret.”