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The daemons kept coming from behind us. I pushed forward until we made it past the checkpoint. Finally, I called my shadows to me, just as another daemon grabbed a hold of me. Ripping out my blades I didn’t give myself time to think and buried them into the daemon’s chest. I froze, as red blood welled around the wounds and began to spill down her front. My shadows surrounded us, beginning. their work dissolving us into nothing. I met the female daemon’s eyes. She was the one who had been forced to curl in Ash Nevra’s lap the first time I had come here. She wasn’t dead, like the others. She was alive, and I had likely just killed her.As my shadows pulled us away, back to the Court of Pride, I let out a strangled moan of despair.
I might have just murdered one of the many daemons I had set out to save.
84
We spilled into the common room, I collapsed with the limp body of the daemon I had stabbed. I was shaking with adrenaline.
“Meredith!” I cried, and she leaped up from where she had been attending to Jeremy, she took one look at us, and her face went white. Looking down at myself, I realized I was covered in blood, and so was Conrad. Fuck I hoped I wasn’t too late.
“Meredith, you need to help Conrad and Rycon… hurry!” I wasn’t sure if I was sobbing or shouting. My hands were shaking violently, and they hovered around the blades that I had impaled in the enslaved daemon’s chest. I gestured to her. She was still alive. She was struggling to breathe through the blood that was surly welling in her lungs. “She came out of nowhere - I thought. I thought she was a corpse… do I take the blades out?” I stammered, looking up at the green witch.
Meredith’s entire demeanor changed. Her quiet, reserved nature disappeared with a snap, and she was suddenly all business.
“No, do not remove them,” she said, her voice calm despite the dire nature of the situation. “Dossidian, get me the blue bottle from the table there, labeled Hemoglow,” she ordered, and Dossidian was quick to obey.
“Mer, I’m sorry,” I croaked as she crouched down next to Conrad, casting a diagnostic spell over him. The glowing knots of his lifelines appeared. They were all red, pulsing, and angry.
“Please, get out of the way, Raven.”
I scrambled back, giving her space to work. Looking at the diagnostic, she dropped her hand to the wound in the crook of his neck to examine it. A pulse of clean blue light erupted from her fingers, spilling into the puncture wound. She let out a sigh of relief.
“He is very lucky. There are several major arteries in the neck and whoever did this missed every single one of them. He has lost a great deal of blood, though.” She murmured. Dossidian appeared with the potion she had asked for, and she nodded curtly in thanks. I watched as Meredith went to work on his wound, using her magick to clean it and seal it up. She then tipped the potion into his mouth, massaging his throat to help him swallow it. When she was done, she asked Dossidian to make him comfortable, while she attended to Rycon and the enslaved female.
After running diagnostics, she pursed her lips.
“They are both in critical condition,” she surmised. “You missed her heart Raven, but one of her lungs has collapsed. I will remove the blades from the daemon first, I will have a very short window of time to heal her. Raven, when I am done, immediately give her the rest of the Hemoglow. I will then need to tend to Rycon. His internal injuries are severe. He is to hurt to regenerate on his own.”
Jeremy came forward and cleared his throat.
“Is there anything I can do to help; I have some medical training.” He said. I had almost forgotten he was here. I nearly choked at the sight of him. He was speaking to Meredith, but looking at me, as if he had never seen me before. I suppose I must look much different. Instead of black jeans and a ratty t-shirt, I was wearing bloody armor and a crown.
Meredith nodded at him. “If you are willing, it would be helpful if you removed the blades for me, so I may begin the healing process the moment they are out. Every second counts.”
He nodded and crouched down next to the dying daemon.
“On three,” Meredith said, kneeling next to him, her palms out over the daemon’s chest. Jeremy nodded, wrapping his hands around the handles of the blades.
“One, two, three!”
Jeremey yanked the blades out of the daemon’s chest. I noticed he was careful to pull them out as evenly as possible, in an attempt to avoid causing any unnecessary damage as he did so. A terrifying amount of blood began to spill from the wounds now that the blades were no longer there to stop the flow. The daemon let out a garbled scream, and blood splattered down her chin. She immediately lost consciousness, as Meredith went to work.
Meredith took longer with the daemon than she had with Conrad. The four of us waited in tense silence. I didn’t know how she was remaining so calm. I could feel Rycon dying next to us, his life was fading and leaking away from our bond. It took everything in me not to scream at Meredith to work faster.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity, she lowered her glowing hands and nodded.
“Now, Raven,” she said, standing up to move onto Rycon. I immediately took her place, and poured the Hemoglow down the daemon’s throat, massaging her the way I had seen Meredith do for Conrad.
When I was satisfied the unconscious daemon had consumed every last drop, I spun around, to watch as Meredith got to work on Rycon.
She kneeled next to him, her palms out, her cool blue magic enveloping him. She was quiet for a long time. Sweat began to bead on her brow as she worked, and she closed her eyes.
The minutes ticked by, and she did not move. None of us spoke, we just sat there, watching, hoping, and praying. After the first hour, it became apparent that we might be waiting all night. Meredith hadn’t moved, and I could feel Rycon fighting for his life through the bond.
More time passed and I got up to check on Conrad. He was still asleep, but his breathing was steady, and there was only a small scar where the rapier had impaled him. He had almost died today too. Guilt tore through me. It had been my decision to push forward. We had all known it was some kind of trap. I had risked their lives and pushed forward anyway. Now Kasha and Amon were gone, likely being tortured in ways my mind couldn’t even imagine. It was all my fault.
I felt, more than saw, Jeremy knelt next to me where I had sat next to Conrad. He put his arm around my shoulders and drew me into him, kissing the top of my head softly. My heart swelled. At least one good thing had come out of this horrible night. At least we had saved Jeremy. I looked up at him. He too, had a new scar. A thin line of white around his neck, where Ash Nevra had sliced him open. He was looking down at me, his brow creased, but his eyes were shining.
“I knew you were alive.” He whispered again. I nodded.
