Page 5 of A Queen This Fierce and Deadly

Finally, finally, I burst through the surface of the water, the cool, life-giving air hitting my face. I sucked in one desperate breath and fixed my mouth to Prisca’s once more.

“Lorian!”

I spared a single glance in the direction of the frantic voice. Madinia stood carefully balanced in a skiff full of hybrids. Likely, Galon had used his power to send her skiff toward us. I treaded water long enough to push Prisca over the edge and into the small boat, immediately hauling myself over after her.

The boat rocked dangerously. Madinia crouched, and several hybrids let out screams.

Madinia pushed Prisca’s hair off her face. “You have to restart her heart. I saw Regner’s healer do it once.”

I shoved my hands against Prisca’s chest, pumping again and again. Her body lay limp on the bottom of the boat. No response.

My entire body went numb. It was as if I were watching someone else’s hands attempt to save my mate. As if it were someone else who leaned down to blow air into her lungs.

The skiff was eerily silent. No one even moved.

I pumped harder, faster, my movements increasingly desperate.

One of her ribs cracked. I felt it like a blow to my own.

“I don’t know what you did,” I ground out. “But you don’t get to leave me here without you. You will fucking come back to me, or I will follow you and drag you back myself.”

“She’s gone,” someone said.

I snarled. Above our heads, lightning split the sky. Where was that power earlier when I needed it?

“That’s the Bloodthirsty Prince attempting to save his mate,” someone else whispered. “I suggest you be very, very quiet.”

Madinia leaned close, checking Prisca’s pulse. Her eyes met mine, and she shook her head.

I ignored her, slamming my hands into Prisca’s chest. Another rib cracked. Oh gods.

“Please,” I begged. “Please, wildcat.”

The bond between us was fading. I could feel it, barely lingering. I clutched it to me.

This was not how we ended. I would never accept this. Could not be expected to endure it.

Movement.

For one terrible moment, I thought I’d imagined it.

And then water poured from Prisca’s mouth, and Madinia was pushing at my hands, attempting to shift Prisca to her side. I rolled her gently, conscious of the damage my hands had done to her fragile bones.

The water choking from her lungs seemed endless. Finally, she stopped coughing. Her chest lifted and fell.

She was breathing.

But she wasn’t opening her eyes.

MADINIA

The distant cry of gulls was a constant refrain. The sound warred with the pirates yelling back and forth to one another as they performed minor repairs on the ship with the cheerful banter of people who were well aware they were lucky to be alive.

The taste of salt lingered on my lips, while my hair had become unmanageable. Still, I lifted my face to the sun, basking in its warmth like a cat.

It had been three days since we’d brought down the barrier.

And Prisca still hadn’t woken.

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