Page 139 of A Fate of Ice and Lies
“Behave or I’ll bury your head in the snow,” she retorted.
But her eyes were wide with fear.
I didn’t blame her. He’d already lost a lot of blood.
I lifted Brenton’s shirt to find blood gushing out of his wound. I circled my magic through Brenton, found the bullet wedged in his liver with shrapnel in his intestines and bones fragmented from the impact of the bullet. While removing it and healing his organs wouldn’t be difficult, I recognized the metal inside himas iron.
Already, the deadly metal had eaten away at his liver and was working its way through his body.
I hissed out a breath as dread gripped me.
“What’s wrong?” Teddy asked, her tone as worried as I felt.
I shook my head, unable to say the words aloud. But Brenton was dead, regardless of what I did for him.
Somehow George had healed himself. Nalari had healed Everly.
“How did you heal yourself?” I asked George.
“The bullet went straight through,” he replied. “I just had to heal the wound.”
I looked back at Everly, and she chewed her bottom lip.
“I don’t know how Nalari did it,” she said.
“Nalari,”I called, but my Guardian’s mental shield was still up. “Try calling Nalari,” I told Teddy. “She blocked me.”
Not sure what else to do, I swirled my magic through his wounds again. Slowly, tentatively. Marking each decaying organ and the way his blood blackened. Seeing if I could pull the poison out and somehow repair the damage the iron had already done.
“You’re not gonna let me die, are you?” Brenton asked, his voice still light and teasing. His face was paler, though, eyes dimmer while his grin remained the same.
“No,” I growled.
At least I hoped not.
It didn’t make sense, though. How had George been able to heal himself with iron in his system? Even if it’d only been inside him for a few seconds, he shouldn’t have been able to survive it.
“Tell me what’s wrong.” Although weak, Brenton’s tone took on a serious tone I’d only heard a few times.
I sighed. “The bullet was made of iron.”
Beside me, George and Everly swore. Brenton nodded, his expression solemn.
“Pull it out,” he told me.
“I don’t think I’ll be able to stop the bleeding once I remove it,” I explained. “It’s in your liver with smaller pieces in your intestines. I’m worried you’ll bleed out from the inside.”
“Pull it out, Elias,” he said again.
I did as he said, sending my magic through him to remove the bullet from his liver. His liver collapsed, but I continued working, pulling out every fragment I saw. Blood surged out as I removed the bullet through the open wound in his stomach. I continued to work quickly to mend him and close any openings. Blood kept rushing through, though.
My magic stitched and mended while more small openings appeared. More hemmed areas reopened. More infected areas collapsed.
It was a losing battle.
After removing my shirt, I pressed it against the open wound. Within the span of a few beats, my shirt was soaked through.
“There’s a sight I don’t mind dying to,” Brenton joked, but it came out distant, as if he were far away. “What is that? A ten-pack of abs?”
