Page 72 of Cruelest Kiss and Fairest Blood
My limbs are shaking. A cramp forces my stomach to seize up. Gasping, I double over, wrapping my arms around mymiddle. The soup splashes across the floor. Daggers dig at my insides.
“Something’s…” I heave, “…wrong.”
“Meat…” Cassius’s voice sounds distant. “Spoiled…” Sweat coats my entire body. Streams of it pour off my face, landing on the comforter. “Healer…”
My vision blurs.
Cassius’s strong arms hook beneath my elbows as he lifts me to my feet. I scream as pain burns its way through my intestines. Cassius instantly sets me back down.
“I’ll get help.”
My tongue is thick. I want to tell him not to leave me. That I’m scared. But my jaw has locked itself shut. The cabin spins around me. I catch a glimpse of Cassius’s cape as he rushes out the door.
All I can do is writhe in agony as my muscles cramp so hard that it twists my body into bone-breaking positions. I become aware of tapping. Repetitive sounds echo from all around me. Squinting, I struggle to focus. There are animals in the windows. Birds peck at the glass. Deer slam their antlers against the panes. A great boom echoes through the cabin as the front door explodes inward. It’s the elk whose baby I brought back. The massive animal shoves through the doorway and a whole host of animals file in behind her. Velvety muzzles press against me, huffing air into my hair and nudging me.
My animals know something is wrong. Sharp pain zaps across my skin as something hard presses against my back. I’m being pushed to the edge of the bed. My neck is so weak I can’t look behind me. The sounds of distraught animals become deafening. Their message is clear.I need to get out of here.
There’s no time to wait for Cassius. I need help now. Lifting my arms takes monumental effort. The elk drops her head, allowing me to hook my arms across her antlers. She lifts myweight, carrying me out into the forest as the tops of my feet drag through the earth.
A rippling in my gut warns me the soup is coming back up. Using the last of my strength, I shove myself off the elk’s rack and onto the forest floor. Vomit, so dark it’s almost black, spews out of me as I hit the ground. My arms shake as I try to support myself. I’ve been food sick before but never this extreme. I wretch again and again. I can barely catch my breath before more hot, bitter liquid explodes out of me. My stomach feels permanently contracted and my throat is so raw I’m sure it’s bleeding. Spinning,spinning. The soiled ground slams into my cheek as my arms give out.
Miriam nudges me, rolling me onto my side. The deer’s gentle face is so hazy. Her smaller form replaces the elk’s. The treetops above are filled with panicky birds. None of them are ravens. Where are Harrow’s messengers? Surely if they saw me in this condition, they would summon him. He could save me. An overly tight feeling squeezes around my chest. My rampant heartbeats have been slowing. They’re thick now, too far apart.
I’m going to die here. My animal companions will be the only ones that know what has happened. The next time I vomit, my mouth remains slack. My tongue is so swollen. Liquid pools in my mouth and throat. My vision goes while I’m still conscious. It’s so dark. Darker than nights during the new moon. Hopelessly black and endless. A void beckons me. The distorted sound of my name brushes past my ears. Are the shadows calling me home? The sounds of the forest drop in pitch, becoming low-toned vibrations. I can’t feel my body.
I’m pulled under.Thump. My heart contracts, but so, so weakly.Thump. A stillness settles over me.Thump. And then my heart beats no more.
Chapter 22
Harrow
Trying to respect Lenore’s wishes is the most challenging thing I’ve ever done. My instincts beg me to go back to her, to comfort her in her time of despair. Leaving her in that moment, so sad and alone, was physically painful. Thoughts of Lenore consume my every waking moment.
“Don’t come back until you can give me what I want.”
I can’t give her what she wants. There is no way to bring someone back from the dead. She should know that better than anyone. Under the right circumstances, Lenore can resurrect animals. It defies the natural order without penalty. That is a rare enough gift.
A thought strikes me, sending my stomach into a spiral. I bet she tried to bring the queen back. Why wouldn’t she have? I know Lenore. She can’t stand to watch an animal suffer or perish. There’s no way she would allow her mother to diewithout attempting to do the same.She was unable to bring her mother back.
My chest tightens. I picture her, trying and trying, giving it everything she has. I’ve seen the sorrow when she fails the animals. She beats herself up so badly after an unsuccessful resurrection. Were there others present? Did she look fully mad, hands on a dead body, crying out for her to wake up? Lenore’s powers must not have been enough. If it had been, she wouldn’t have asked for my help.
“Humansss grieve. It’sss a flaw,” Mytha notes.
The insult ruffles my feathers. Glaring, I snap, “Lenore is not flawed.”
“Ssshe isss human. That isss the flaw.” Mytha is not wrong. But my view of humans has been evolving since I met Lenore.
My little raven is, indeed, flawed. Those parts of her draw me in like all the others. “I love her flaws.”
Mytha hisses. “You know thisss isss but a folly. You rule the dead. You can’t create the living.”
“She just needs space.”
“Ssshe needsss to be allowed the chance at a normal life. How will ssshe find that,life, with Death himself?”
“Enough!” My voice booms throughout the chamber. I must find a way to bring her mother back. “Do you know where the queen resides?”
Mytha nods. “You know ssshe will not be the sssame.”
