Chapter Fifteen #2
Kade’s en made the fire worse. It wasn’t a soothing balm or a warm and bright blanket of bliss. Instead, it felt as though Kade was redoubling Hokda’s efforts to boil Killian from the inside out, and then digging his claws through the ash that was left.
The sound of agony he let slip would haunt Killian, as would Kade’s answering expression of horror. Killian could feel Kade’s hands begin to shake, the determination in his eyes slipping into something more akin to a scared child.
Killian was sure if he opened his mouth now, he’d start screaming. So he clamped his mouth shut and tried to focus. He met Kade’s amber eyes and nodded stiffly.
Breathe. Breathe.
By some miracle, Kade understood. He paused, took two deep breaths, and then dove back in.
The pain was still there, but they both did their best to ignore it.
Killian was heaving, near throwing up by the time it was all finished. The skin across his abdomen was scarred and puffy, raised and bumpy with the evidence of fire. His enil, however, was still as prominent as ever, the burns and healing not able to put a scratch on it.
Again, Hokda made a displeased noise at the sight of Killian’s healed wound and his quill flew across the page.
“Can you give me a fucking second?” Killian snapped when Hokda announced he was ready to move on to the third and final stage.
Hokda gave him an affronted look, but begrudgingly allowed him five minutes to catch his breath, mumbling all the while about noisy guinea pigs and how it wasn’t even that bad.
Kade stepped close and lowered his voice. “Are you alright?”
Killian just nodded. His throat dry as a desert.
This time, Kade really did take Killian’s hand. His skin was cold and clammy. He made a small noise, like a whimper.
“I’m fine. Don’t worry about me. Just do what you need to do.” Killian tried for a smile. “You hear me?”
Kade nodded.
They startled at a loud clap. Hokda announced their five minutes was up.
“Captain, if you would do the honors of choosing.” He laid out the four vials of mud.
He giggled at Killian’s disgusted expression.
“Don’t worry. They’re all fairly weak poisons, none could actually kill you.
I promise.” But then he winked, and Killian didn’t find himself believing the healer at all.
“Poison?” Kade gasped. “You’re going to poison him?”
Hokda nodded eagerly. “That’s the plan.” Then, “Kade del Torau, this is the last stage of your practical examination. You must identify which poison was chosen, based on your patient's symptoms, and walk me through the steps as you begin to craft your antidote. Again, you have access to all my stores. We don’t have time to let the antidote brew for the allotted time it needs, so once you’ve identified the poison and crafted the antidote to ninety percent, I will provide you with a finished product. Do you understand?”
“Poison?” Kade was still stuck on that.
“You may forfeit at any time.” Hokda’s voice was ice cold.
The grip Kade had on his hand was deathly, Killian squeezed back hard and then let go.
Killian chose the vial on the left, it was the lightest in color and didn’t look as thick and slimy as the others. Hokda looked too gleeful as he poured it down Killian’s throat, singing drink up.
The potion tasted as bad as it looked. Bitter and earthy.
Killian’s body caught aflame the moment the poison passed his lips. The liquid was like a hot iron poker being shoved down his throat, eating away at his organs as they melted together into one big mess. He was getting really tired of fire.
He was hot.
He was too cold.
He was burning.
Gurgling, Killian was vaguely aware he was shaking, his muscles spasming uncontrollably as his eyes rolled.
Cold hands touched Killian’s face. They felt good. Soothing.
“Killi, can you hear me?” Kade, but he was distant and warbled, like he was speaking underwater. “Can you look at me?”
Killian couldn’t answer. His tongue thick and heavy in his mouth. He thought he was drooling a bit.
“Tick tock, del Torau. You’re wasting time. If this were any stronger poison, your patient could be dead by now.”
Cursing softly, Kade began to move.
Deliciously cold hands roamed Killian’s body, peeling his eyelids back one at a time, to his neck to check his racing pulse, to his abdomen where Kade pressed down and made him gasp and groan when his pain spiked.
Killian swore at one point, Kade took a needle—a terrifyingly huge needle—and stuck him, collecting a drop of blood that Kade then slid across his tongue.
Disgusting.
Hokda snorted.
“Don’t try to speak,” shushed Kade. “Just breathe.”
Helpless to do anything but obey, Killian let his head fall back and closed his eyes. It felt like he was drifting away. Spinning and spinning and spinning.
It was grounding when he felt traces of Kade’s magic, this time beautiful and light and warm. It was like the sun. It felt good. Everything Kade did to him felt good.
Killian made a low sound of distress when the sun disappeared. No. No. Come back. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Just come back.
The sun never came back.
There were muffled sounds of conversation happening around him, but Killian couldn’t make out any of the words.
He was slipping. Darkness was closing in.
It crept along the edges of his consciousness.
The pain was too much and for some reason, he was very focused on the fact that he was sweaty. His skin slick with it.
It felt awful. He wanted a bath.
“Oh, shit. You’re awake.” Killian woke to Hokda’s disappointed tone. “I’d hoped you’d stay asleep for this part.”
Killian forced his heavy eyelids open. He slurred, “What part?”
And then he was burning again. His skin was bubbling and bursting and it was all pain pain pain.
“You motherfucker.” Killian slumped, too exhausted to keep his head up. He had a splitting headache and all he wanted to do was fall into bed and sleep for the next month. “I’m going to kill you.”
“I had to,” said Hokda simply. “Or did you want to keep that big ugly scar your brother left?”
The healer had reopened the wounds on Killian’s stomach, redoing all the damage he had done the first time just to heal him again.
Hokda had sent Kade out of the room while he did it, ignoring any and all protests from the younger elf. Killian could imagine Kade pacing, back and forth and back and forth, as he waited for Killian to appear.
“I can’t believe you poisoned me.”
The healer shrugged. “When else would I get the chance? I couldn’t let this golden opportunity just pass me by.” He sighed dreamily. “My prayers were answered. I’ve always dreamed this day would come, and I have to say, it was just as fun as I’d imagined.”
“Lunatic.”
“Yes. Well. I’m still the best.”.
And he was the best. When Hokda had been healing Killian, the second time around, there had been none of the burning and stinging throughout that he’d experienced when Kade had been the one healing him.
It was jarring, but Hokda’s healing was the exact opposite of his personality, soft and gentle and all flickers of gold.
Kade rushed to Killian when the door opened and he staggered through, his legs like jelly underneath him. With a hand on Killian’s chest and an arm around his waist, Kade helped support his weight. He didn’t really need it, but it was a nice gesture, and he leaned into the contact.
Hissing, Kade glared over Killian’s shoulder at the healer that leaned lazily in the doorframe, smirking.
“Get back to your room safely, Captain.” Hokda waggled his fingers. “del Torau, join me in my office when you’re done fawning over your brother like an idiot. Honestly. He’s fine.”
Killian sent the healer a rude gesture. Hokda rolled his eyes and then turned with a flourish, his robes fluttering out around him, and retreated back into his office.
“He’s right, I’m fine,” Killian said quickly, answering the question that Kade was on the verge of asking. He stretched his back, moaning as it cracked loudly. “I feel like I’ve been run over by Fyar’s herd of elk.”
“Yes, that’s to be expected,” Kade ground out. He softened. “I’m so sorry, Killi. I didn’t think—I didn’t expect the test would be…that.”
“You couldn’t have known. Hokda’s just fucking crazy.
” Killian raised his voice so the healer could hear him from the other room.
His answer was a loud bark of laughter. “I’ve been relieved of duty the rest of the day.
” Fyar so knew what Hokda had been planning.
That fucker. “So I’m going to go sleep this off. ”
Killian left Kade there, concern swimming in his eyes, with a touch to his cheek and a smile.
Later, when Killian had long since collapsed on the sofa, limbs sprawled out, his arm over his eyes, he thought he felt the press of soft lips to his cheeks, and then the corner of his mouth, just shy of his lips, delivered with a quiet apology.
Maybe it was just his imagination. A very real dream.
“You’re a real bastard, you know that? What is wrong with you? You’re as bad as Hokda,” Killian ranted the next day. Absolutely baffled. “A warning, at least, would have been nice.”
Fyar cackled. “Aw. But Hokda was so excited to surprise you. How could I take that from him?”
“I hate you.”
“I love you, too.”