Page 34 of A Dream Shrouded in Fury
Jael
XXV
Kalla’s screams shattered my heart, and I stuffed the bag of powder into my pocket so I could grip her arms and help ease her thrashing.Cliff did his best to hold her steady, but I couldn’t leave her to fend for herself.Every shriek was another knife to my chest, tearing me part from the inside.My beautiful lily, the song that warmed my soul, should never have needed to make sounds like this.It killed me that my people had done this to her—that they had confirmed all the reasons her people stayed in hiding.
But I’d show her there was more out there than the cruelty she’d been taught to anticipate.No matter how hard she fought, I wouldn’t let her go.
“It will burn hot but brief, lutrena.Hold on.”
I prayed to the sky and earth and river that I was telling the truth, that I’d given her the antidote quickly enough.If the toxin had already spread too far, the magic in the powder would never catch up in time, and she would die in this torment.
My heart slammed against my rib cage at the thought that this might be how I lost her.That she might die at my hands for trying to save her instead of at the hands of the enemy.If she did, Cliff would kill me, and I would deserve it.
More than that, I would welcome it.I thought of how I’d lain in the bloody grass after the ambush and opened my arms to my end.I’d been so tired of the constant anger, the constant struggle to find reasons to keep breathing.Kalla had given me a reason, and if she died tonight, part of me would die with her.I would have no choice but to follow.
Her muscles tensed, and her eyes rolled back in her head as blood trickled out of her mouth from where she’d bitten her tongue.
Nausea sloshed in my gut and chills chased sweats across the back of my neck, but I stayed where I was, held her eye, and coached her through the pain, clinging to my sanity even as she clung to life.
When her screams fell silent, my own nearly broke free to fill their place.This wasn’t right.This wasn’t how the taphis root was supposed to work.I’d never seen anyone go so far and come back.I tightened my grip on her and pleaded with her to stay with me.
Her pale brow glistened, her eyes turned glassy before they fluttered closed, and her complexion washed out to an even more ghostly white than it usually was.
“Kal, you still with us?”Cliff asked.“Kal?Kalla!”
She went limp in his arms, and Ria clapped a hand over her mouth and backed away.Pimmin and Hethyr embraced her in support, and I envied their ability to stay so detached.
I didn’t bother asking myself why I couldn’t.Why the thought of this vampire expiring created waves of panic the likes of which I hadn’t suffered since Leonine had branded the first symbol of his disapproval into my chest.The answer didn’t matter.It definitely wouldn’t matter if Kalla didn’t rouse herself from this stupor.My heart beat so hard and so fast that if she didn’t open her eyes soon, it would stop.
“Lutrena bredtha me, keep fighting,” I begged.“The magic should almost be out of your system.A few more moments.Stay strong for me for a few more moments.Please.”
Cliff was still, his brown eyes fixed on Kalla’s face, fear written in every faint line of his features.
“You can’t leave me, Kal,” he whispered.“Fifty years we’ve been friends.Who’ll back me up against Thorn when she gets those wild ideas in her head?Who’ll hunt with me?This fae says you’re almost through it, so listen to him, yeah?”
Another wave of envy swam beneath my terror that Cliff had so many years’ worth of memories to hang on to.They had a history, a friendship rooted in shared experiences.
I’d had a handful of nights.
Nights of the most eye-opening, wondrous magic Kalla could bestow.Nights I would treasure to my final breath.But she deserved so many more.She had to come back.
A deep, shuddering breath wracked her body, and I stiffened, holding my own breath as I watched and waited.
For a few heartbeats, nothing else happened, and Cliff’s grip around her tightened, but when she sucked in another breath, and another, my own whooshed out of me and every muscle deflated.My vision blurred behind a swell of tears, and I blinked them away, not wanting to lose sight of her for a moment.Cliff bowed his head against her shoulder in a silent prayer, but I couldn’t stop staring at her face, needing her to open her eyes.
When she did, the blue was shot through with red.Her gaze landed on me, and her lips pulled back to reveal her lethal fangs.Relief too potent to contain anything like joy stole all thought of speech.My head swam, and I sucked in breaths until the black spots receded from the edges of my vision.
“Fuck that hurt,” she growled, her voice rough.I couldn’t help but laugh, a weak, shaky sound that no one would confuse with mirth.
“Yeah, it does,” I rasped.“But it worked.”
She stared at me a long while, then tilted her head back to look at Cliff.“Hey.”
“You’re a pain in my ass, you know that?”he eked out between heavy breaths, and she smiled.
“Yeah.That’s why you love me.”
He grunted and helped her sit up.It took her a few tries, but with every passing moment, her strength seemed to return, and before long she sat on her own.
