Page 68 of Saved By the Cruel Highlander
“Guards! Guards!” he bellowed.
Holly’s face was purple, her eyes bulging, her chest unmoving. She stared up at the ceiling like a statue.
“Nay, come back to me,” Elias whispered, cradling her face in his hands. “Come on, Holly. Come back to me!”
Holly suddenly wheezed as she drew breath and her body came back to life. She made a deep rasping sound, and her eyes opened wider as she struggled to breathe. The whites of her eyes were red, her hair spilling around her face like fire. Her skin was red where her blood vessels had burst.
Elias had seen dead men on the battlefield who looked more alive than she did.
“Ye’re all right,” he soothed, caressing her cheek. “Ye’re goin’ to be fine.”
He took a quick look at the woman on the floor. She lay unmoving, and blood pooled under her head from where she had been hit with the chair. Still, her body moved slightly with her unconscious breaths.
“Ye’re safe now,” Elias repeated over and over.
He was not sure if that was true. He had thought Holly was safe when Felix was killed, and he had not remained vigilant after.
Holly sucked in breath after breath, taking in too many for the ones she let out. Her face turned from a deep purple to a bright red, and she started to cry. She burst into shaky sobs, gasping for breath in between.
“It’s all right, it’s all right,” Elias said.
Two guards ran into the room and quickly took stock of the situation, not letting the shock show on their faces.
“Take her!” the Laird ordered, pointing to the woman on the floor. “Take her to the dungeons and lock her up. Dinnae pay any attention to her other than lockin’ her up. Do ye understand?”
“Aye,” the lead guard said, before the other two went to the unconscious woman.
Elias scooped Holly up in his arms and noticed the blood on her sleeve for the first time. He looked back at her face, still red but not purple like before. Her eyes still bulged, and her throat was red, but she was awake. Still, her head swam, and she had not said a word nor seemed to recognize him.
Elias cradled her in his arms and ran out of the room.
As some of the castle residents woke up, two more guards and a maid arrived at the room.
“Wake everyone!” Elias ordered the second pair of guards as he ran. “I want the castle searched to make sure there is nay one else here.” To the maid, he instructed, “Go to Cassandra’s room and make sure she is up and on her way to the healin’ room.”
Elias looked down at Holly as he ran down the long hallway. She was not breathing as heavily but looked far weaker. Her eyelids closed and opened as she slipped into sleep. He hoped it was only sleep.
He watched where he was going again as he rounded a corner so he could go down the stairs as quickly as he could without falling. He ran from the bottom of the stairs to the healing room, barging in with Holly in his arms. He placed her down on the closest mattress.
A moment later, Cassandra burst into the room, bleary-eyed but energetic.
“What happened?” she asked.
“Someone got in,” Elias said. “I found her chokin’ Holly, ready to stab her.”
“A woman?” Cassandra asked as she went to Holly.
“She’s wounded. On her arm, I think,” Elias said.
“All right, just give me some space to work,” Cassandra said, holding up a hand to urge him back.
Elias stepped back until his back hit the wall. Then, he looked around. The healing room was dark and empty. The constant fire in the hearth ensured that it was never cold and that the people Cassandra treated were comfortable.
His heart was beating irregularly, and he struggled to breathe for a moment as if he had been the one strangled. The image of the woman with her hand around Holly’s neck flashed through his mind, and his anger flared again. He wanted to march to the dungeons and strangle her until her eyes popped out of their sockets.
“She’s goin’ to be all right,” Cassandra said.
“Ye’ve cured her?” Elias asked.
