Page 114 of Scorched Earth
Malahi approached, and then led Lydia a short distance away. “What are you thinking?” her friend asked her. “What is it that you worry is going to happen?”
“I think I’ll lose control and come back to myself surrounded by corpses.”
Malahi chewed on her bottom lip, then turned to face down Ceenah. “Lydia is not ready. Not yet.”
The words were a punch to the gut because they were true. Lydia’s shoulders slumped as Malahi walked back over to Agrippa, passing Killian as she did. The relief in his eyes was palpable, and somehow, that made Lydia feel worse.
Then Ceenah lunged after Malahi.
Lydia’s lips parted to scream a warning, but Agrippa was already moving. Except it wasn’t Malahi that Anukastre’s queen attacked.
It was Killian.
Her knife slashed down across Killian’s exposed forearm, the blade going nearly down to the bone. He hissed in pain, jerking away even as he clapped his other hand around the wound, arterial blood spurting between his fingers.
“Heal him, Lydia,” Ceenah commanded. “It’s long past due.”
Lydia tripped over her own feet, nearly falling in her rush to get to Killian’s side. “No,” she pleaded as she took in the severity of the wound, blood already pooling on the ground. “Ceenah, help him. Please!”
The Queen of Anukastre didn’t move.
“You cannot seriously be refusing to help him?” Lydia screamed, her heart rising to her throat as Killian swayed on his feet.
“It’s fine,” he muttered. “I’ll be fine.”
“You’ll die if she doesn’t help you,” Ceenah said. “If you wish to buy yourself time, I suggest sitting.”
Killian thudded to the ground, hand still gripping the bleeding wound. “Just get a lamp burning. Cauterize it.”
“This is madness.” Lydia reached for him, then jerked back, the sight of his life flowing out between his fingers making the voice deep inside her screamtake it!
“It’s madness to believe you can’t help him!” Xadrian shouted inher face, his weapon in hand. Then he spun away. “Mother, heal him! Don’t let her weakness be the death of him!”
“Lydia is not weak.” Ceenah crossed her arms. “The trouble is that her adversary is herself.”
Killian only met Lydia’s gaze, expression steady. As though he had no doubt in his mind that she’d do what needed to be done.
Reaching out, she pulled his hand away from the injury. The wound extended up to his elbow, blood pulsing out with each beat of his heart. The life he’d lost hung around him like a cloud.
Behind her, Xadrian begged his mother to help and Malahi sobbed, but Lydia pushed away their voices, slowly placing her palm on the wound.
Take it.
“No,” she growled at the voice, clenching her teeth against the compulsion within her, which grew worse with each second that passed. Like being deep underwater and desperately needing to breathe.
Take it.
“I won’t.” Her eyes skipped to Killian’s face. His lids were closed, face drained of color. “I will not lose him.”
Because she loved him. Needed him in a way that was so much greater than all the things the voice promised if she allowed her darker half to consume her. What was strength without him? What was pleasure? What was power?
Nothing,was the answer.
The glow of Killian’s life drifted around them, and lifting her other hand, Lydia touched the swirling mist.
And shepulled.
The life that Killian had lost flowed into Lydia at her call, but it didn’t stop there. From all around, it surged toward her, like clouds on a racing wind, flooding her like a breath of air.
