Chapter 98
Faylinn
Heaving and panting, my chest constricting with each breath, I slowly stutter-stepped my way through the courtyard toward the Academy.
No one stopped me—either they were too engrossed in their own demons to notice I had their General slung over my shoulders like a sack of grain, or the feral look of grief and rage written on my face turned them away.
Either way, it didn’t matter.
If Rohak had any hope of survival—however minimal it was—I needed to get him inside and safe.
I picked my way over bodies and splashed through puddles of blood and rainwater, my boots saturated and squelching with each step. My toes were shriveled and pruny from traipsing through unidentifiable liquids the past few hours.
Every muscle in my body screamed as I slowly ascended the stairs, shuffling my feet up each step to maintain my balance.
Inside, the Academy was in just as much disarray as the exterior. Chunks of stone littered the entryway, dust and debris forming a thin film on the floor. My boots shuffled through the slippery layer, marking my path for everyone to see.
At least someone will be able to find us later.
I tried the handle on the first classroom, the locking mechanism engaged, and the handle rattled, causing what sounded like childlike yelps to sound from within.
I was too tired to reassure them, too focused on Rohak to call out, so I simply stuttered to the next door, breathing a sigh of relief when it pushed open with a squeak. It was relatively empty, a few desks scattered and tipped over. Like the entryway, a coating of dust covered each surface.
My knees buckled as my legs shook under Rohak’s dead weight. Unable to move forward any further, I found a relatively open and clean spot on the floor and carefully dumped Rohak off my back. He hit the ground with a solid thunk, his body rolling to a rest so his face was turned toward the sky.
Breaths heaved in my chest as sweat cascaded down my neck and face.
My hands shook from exhaustion, exertion, and the fear of what I might find when I went to check Rohak’s vitals.
Now that the battle was over and we were insulated inside, the silence was nearly deafening.
I could hear the occasional crack as stones settled, dirt floating through the air with the movement.
Muffled voices began entering the Academy, and I could barely pick out that they were converting the mess hall into an infirmary.
They would need to triage and mark appropriately. They needed healers, and that portion of my soul desperately willed me to follow and to help, but it was a feeble call.
All of my emotion, all of my energy, was focused on the enigmatic man lying on the floor.
Please don’t be dead.
I’d watched him take his last stuttering breaths, but I’d hoped beyond all measure that the runes I’d painted on his chest kept his heart beating and lungs inflating just enough.
The question remained about what I would do if he were still alive.
One thing at a time.
I sagged to the floor, my legs jellied and unable to hold my weight upright anymore, before shuffling across on my knees to rest beside the General. Tentatively, I felt his bare skin. It was cold to the touch, and I bit back a cry.
Not now. Not yet.
My teeth sank into my bottom lip as I palpated his skin and throat, pressing deeply to feel a pulse. My fingers sank deep into his neck, past the hard muscle and sinew, and I tasted copper on my tongue, having bit through my lip.
Please, I pleaded to whatever deity was listening. I no longer cared for the help of Solace or Kaos, but if Fate was there, I hoped and prayed he’d take pity on his granddaughter just this once.
I held my breath and felt around his pulse point, but it remained still. I shifted my hands as a sob worked through my throat, but froze.
There.
There.
It was there. Light and fluttery, barely pumping, but it was there.
“Oh gods,” I cried, my voice cracking with the strain of my relief and grief. I pulled my hand away before reaching for the dagger at my waist. My simple runes of healing were not enough for him—he was too far succumbed to the sickness, too beyond my normal reach.
But there is another way.
My breaths came in shallow pants as I contemplated my actions.
Was I really going to do this?
My hands moved of their own accord, slicing a horizontal gash in my left elbow as I quickly moved to do the same on Rohak’s. His blood barely oozed from the cut, his heart feebly working to keep his vital organs alive.
“He can hate me later. At least he’ll be alive to hate me,” I whispered to myself as I dipped my fingers in my free-falling blood and quickly drew the required rune on Rohak’s right forearm before digging my fingers into his cut and marking myself in the same fashion.
As soon as the rune on my skin was complete, the words of power spoken, I felt something snap inside me, a string of light connecting me to the man on the floor, and I fell beside him with a cry of pain. My head cracked against the black stone floor of the classroom, but I didn’t feel it.
Couldn’t feel it.
I was consumed by raw agony, my mind flayed open as light burst across my vision. My back arched against the dirty ground at an impossible angle as a raw, guttural scream was rent from my throat. Every muscle and joint in my body contracted and tensed as I contorted into impossible positions.
My heart beat to an impossible rhythm—so fast I couldn’t discern when one beat ended and another began. It was like my blood was on fire—the agony was so pure and undiluted, I thought for sure I would die from it.
But I held on—I found that string that connected Rohak and I and clutched it with everything I had.
A new kind of agony exploded in my mind—emotion and pain that weren’t my own, before I was pulled into blessed darkness and knew no more.