Page 121 of Master of Storms
“That bastard shot me. Twice.” She dug her fingers into her palm. “There was something on the arrows. It…. It feels like it’s burning me… from the inside out.”
A tear slid down her face, and it nearly broke him because he knew what it cost her to allow him to see it.
“I can’t push this one through,” he told her, trying to be gentle as he examined it. “We’ll have to cut your ribs open. Can you wait until I get you back to theZilittucastle?”
There was something small about her voice. “He said I’d tear my own throat out before the hour was up.”
Every inch of him knotted in two. “How bad is it?”
Solveig met his gaze with haunted eyes. “It’s been ten minutes. And I w-want to… scratch every inch of skin off already.”
She was shaking. Badly.
He didn’t have time to get her back to the castle.
“You’re not going to like my suggestion.”
“I’ll take a-anything.”
He held his hands up, summoning strands of Fire between his fingertips. “If I knock you unconscious, I can cut the arrow out and then use my magic to burn the poison out of your blood.” He swallowed. “It’s going to hurt, and it will take days to recover.”
And she would be entirely vulnerable.
“I can… handle the pain. Take me back… to the castle.”
“Solveig.” He reached down and brushed a kiss to her forehead, feeling as though his own chest was torn open. “Stop being so brave.Trustme. Trust me. I can heal you. I promise I won’t let anything happen to you while you’re unconscious.”
It took a long, breathless moment for her to speak.
“Have you ever done this before?” she whispered.
“Partly. I spent months in Morocco with adrekiclan there. One of their healers had the gift of Fire, and when a puff adder bit one of their children, he burned the venom from her blood. He showed me how it was done.”
Solveig shuddered, as if a new wave of pain wracked her. And then she finally nodded. “Don’t let anything happen to me.”
“On my life,” he whispered, kissing her lips and then pressing his fingertips to her temples.
Even as she shuddered, she lowered her psychic shields, and as he tried to tell her how much she meant to him with his kiss, he knocked her unconscious.
* * *
Marduk slidinto the cool silk sheets behind Solveig and curled his body around her. He’d managed to carry her back to court, and the healers had seen to her.
He could barely remember snarling something at Draco when the king strode to intercept them, like, “Get out of my way or I’ll rip your throat out.”
Draco had demanded to know what had happened.
“Elin,” he’d gasped. “My mother’s spirit has overtaken Elin.She’s the one killing your Chaos-wielders, and she’s working with Tyndyr.”
And then the rest of the night was a blur.
Solveig still hadn’t woken.
Black, sluggish tar seeped from the wounds in her chest, as if poison was welling up from deep within her. Dark shadows smudged beneath her eyes, and it was disconcerting to realize that the force of nature he knew was still and quiet and surprisingly small beneath the blankets.
Her scream had been the worst sound he’d ever heard in his life.
Seeing her in so much pain tore something inside him.
