Chapter 23 #3
And then he went eerily still.
“What?” I stepped up beside him, a chill skating down my spine. “What is it?”
I followed the direction of his gaze before he turned it on me, that concerned but apologetic look in his eyes slicing like a blade through my chest.
Across the clearing, near the forest.
A heavyset male sprawled on the ground.
But beside his leg…
Hair the colour of spun sunshine spilled across the dirt.
“No.” I whispered that denial and was in motion before I knew what I was doing, sprinting across the distance between us, lying to myself the whole way.
It wasn’t her.
It was someone else.
She would be fine.
She was just tired.
Trapped.
It wasn’t her.
My legs weakened beneath me as I neared her, as all the feelings I had pushed down inside me burst free of their cage to wreck me.
Kaeleron caught me, not missing a step as he scooped me up into his arms and crossed the distance at a speed far greater than I ever could have managed.
I shoved from his arms as we reached her, a sob pushing up my throat as her bloodied face came into view. She looked so peaceful with her eyes closed, as if she was just resting. Sleeping. Tears stung my eyes as I grabbed hold of the male who pinned her, yanking at his dead weight.
“Help me!” I screamed and Kaeleron was there again, pulling the body off her.
And my heart stopped as she sucked down a shallow breath.
“Mom.” I fell to my knees beside her, leaning over her, feathering my fingers through her hair and then down her bare body.
Oh gods.
My hand flew to my mouth.
Deep claw marks sliced up her side, cutting clean through her ribs.
“No.” My hands shook as I pressed them to the wounds, too small to make any difference as blood leaked from beneath them. I shook my head. “No. Mom. You’ll be fine. You’ll be okay. Kael.”
I looked at him, his face wobbling and distorting through my tears, my nose streaming as I sniffled.
I hiccupped on a sob.
My brows furrowing.
“Save her. Please.” I blinked and the tears spilled down my cheeks, but more came to distort my vision when he just looked at me, his silver eyes still filled with that damned apology.
I snapped, “Help her. Like you helped me. You healed me. Your magic. The ward is gone. You can save her. Please. Please, Kael.”
I broke down in tears, losing the will to fight them as he just continued to look at me with that soft apologetic look on his face.
“I am sorry, Saphi,” he whispered.
“No!” I shot to my feet and hit his chest, beating the black leather with my fists, making his body jerk as I sobbed at him.
“No… You can save her… You can… save her.” I grabbed hold of his arm and pulled with all my strength, dragging him down beside my mother, and pushed his hands against her side. “You can save her… like you saved me.”
“Saphi,” he whispered.
I looked at him.
Tears glistened in his eyes as he looked at me, pain so fierce it echoed within me, and I knew he couldn’t do what I asked, that it was too late for my mother, that even the most potent of magics couldn’t save her now, but I couldn’t just give up. He had to know that. I couldn’t just let her go.
“Kael.” My lower lip wobbled and I sniffed. “Please. Try. For me.”
He gave a sombre nod and I watched as he pressed his hands against my mother’s side. She grunted and I leaned over her, smoothing her matted hair, stroking her brow.
“You’re going to be fine.” I hiccupped. “You’re going to be fine, mom.”
“Saphi,” she whispered weakly.
“Save your strength. Kael can heal you. Just hold on.” I sensed others approaching and looked up to find Malachi beside Kaeleron.
“Mal. Medicine. Now.” Kael bit those words out from between clenched teeth as his jaw flexed and he glared at his hands, and I felt like a bitch for making him do this when I knew it was impossible. The strain written across every line of his beautiful face only deepened as Malachi teleported.
“Saphi,” my mother murmured and I looked at her, gripping her hand and clinging to it as I forced a shaky smile, some foolish part of me not wanting her to see me crying, as if it would miraculously change what she knew was coming.
She was dying.
I was going to lose both of my parents today.
“I shouldn’t have come.” Another sob burst from me as tears cascaded down my cheeks. “I’m sorry. I thought I could save you all. I’m sorry.”
She weakly gripped my hand as I sucked down a breath, trying to get control of myself.
“Your father loved you,” she whispered, her voice so faint. “He loved you so much. He loved you from the moment you were born. Before that. He was so happy to be your father… and he was so sorry he couldn’t let you live your dream… see the world. I’m sorry… too.”
I shook my head, not wanting her to feel any kind of regret in this moment. “It doesn’t matter.”
She opened her bloodshot eyes, struggling to lift them to me, and her breath rattled as she said, “We just… wanted… to keep… you safe.”
I squeezed her hand, lifting it to my chest and pressing it there. “I know. I know, mom.”
She reached for me with her other hand. “No. You… don’t. We tried… so hard… to keep… you safe. In the end… we… couldn’t. I’m… sorry. We… love… you, Saphi.”
Her hand dropped before she could reach me.
The one I gripped going lax in mine.
“No.” My face crumpled as I shook my head, as I tried to make her fingers hold mine again, as I looked at Kael as he sat back, his bloodied hands slipping from my mother’s side. “Keep going. She’s going to be fine. Please.”
“Saphi,” he whispered.
“Gods, no!” I cried as I threw myself against his chest, as I wrapped my arms around him and clung to him, great heaving sobs shaking me until I couldn’t breathe, until I felt I was going to pass out.
Kaeleron stroked my hair.
Murmured something softly against it.
And blissful darkness devoured me.