Page 156 of A Tribute of Fire

The edges of my vision were blurring into black. I felt her pushing my tunic aside and then heard her take in a deep breath.

“I’m so sorry.”

She pushed the heated seal into my skin and I screamed, the pain blocking out my ability to see or hear. My senses pinpointed to the excruciating burning on my shoulder and it utterly consumed me, ravaging my body with the worst, most intense pain I’d ever experienced.

It hurt worse than getting stabbed.

I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think, couldn’t move.

“The other side,” I gasped after she took the seal away. The smell of burning flesh filled the high priestess’s office. “You have to close the opening on my back, too.”

Tears streamed down her face as she rolled me onto my side and, without hesitating, pressed the hot seal against the open wound there.

I screamed again, and then I must have passed out, because everything went black.

It seemed to have only been for a few moments because I awoke to see Io vomiting in the corner.

“I’m all right,” I mumbled, trying to soothe her.

She shook her head. “I killed that man. I killed him. I took his life.”

“You did it to protect me.” It was getting easier to form words. Feeling was returning to my limbs, and even though my shoulder was screaming at me, I struggled to sit up. I couldn’t do it. I was too dizzy from the pain. “You saved my life.”

“I know, I know,” she cried, wrapping her arms around her knees and curling up into a ball, rocking back and forth.

I’d spent months preparing to take a life while training with Demaratus, so it hadn’t been an earth-shattering thing for me when it had happened.

But for Io? Who only wanted to protect all living things?

The only way I could think to help her in the moment was to spur her to action. To get her focusing on something else.

“We have to raise an alarm,” I told her. “There might be others.”

That seemed to reach her. “Yes. I’ll go sound the horn. You’re right. We have to warn everyone.”

She ran out of the room and I screwed my eyes shut. This was my one chance. I had to get up. I had to search this room before the others arrived. I turned over onto my stomach, clenching my teeth against the pain. I wished I had something to bite down on. I crawled over to the wall and used it as leverage to push myself up.

I was breathing hard, sweating. My whole body was in pain, like it had radiated out from my shoulder and infested every part of me so that I was one giant ache. My head throbbed, my vision blurring.

A horn sounded, again and again. Io was letting the entire temple know that we had been invaded.

There was a movement at the door and my heart sank. I had lost my one opportunity.

With a sigh of relief, I realized that it was Suri.

She had a dagger drawn. She must have just missed Io. She raised both of her eyebrows at me, questioning whether I was all right.

“I’ll live,” I told her as I leaned against the wall, lacking the ability to step forward.

Her gaze fell upon the dead man.

“Io,” I told her, and she looked so sad and concerned. “She did it to save me.”

Suri nodded.

“I need you to look for me. I can’t do it. Before anyone comes to check up on us. A key.”

At that Suri’s eyebrows climbed even higher up her forehead and then she made a face like she couldn’t believe I was still going to search after what had just happened. She pointed in the direction of the infirmary.

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