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I held her shoulders down and put my head against hers.“Hold on. Just a little longer.”
Mavris grabbed her blood soaked shirt, tinted with the black of the poison, next to where the arrow was embedded in her stomach. He ripped it open, exposing the wound. He grabbed the arrow with one hand and placed his hand on her onyx colored skin next to it.
“This process will hurt her, and she will likely thrash from the pain and fight against me. Do not attack me. I am helping her. Remember that,” he commanded.
I nodded without hesitation and tightened my grip on her shoulders.
With a sharp inhale, Mavris pulled the arrow free, tossing it aside and placed his tattooed hands over the wound. The black-tinted blood seeped through his fingers. With a deep breath, he began to pull the poison from her blood through the tear. At first, she stilled, and I held my breath, but then her body arched off the table in an unnatural contortion. Her eyes widened so far I thought they might actually pop out of their sockets, and her mouth opened in a spine-chilling shriek.
I had to fight myself to keep from stopping Mavris, to stop her pain. I kept telling myself that she would survive this, and it would be over soon. She had to survive, because if she didn’t, neither would I.
“Shh. It’s okay. You’ll be okay.” My voice broke, barely audible over her shrill wails.
Mavris pushed her body back down to the table with force, his muscles straining to hold her down as he whispered apologies over and over. He pulled and pulled more of the tainted blood from her veins.
Kya gasped through broken cries as she begged and pleaded, “Sto-stop! Pleeeease!”
My tears dripped into her sweat covered hair and I tried to hold her head down to keep her from smashing it against the stone.
“It will be over soon,” I promised, then looked at Mavris. “Right?”
The pained look on his face told me all I needed to know. “I’m sorry, but it takes a while.”
We were torturing her, and it ripped my heart and soul to shreds as the minutes or hours passed. I continued to hold her down as she suffered through violent, constant tremors. But it was working.
The blackness in her veins slowly dissipated and her skin returned to a more natural yet still pale color. Finally, the poisonhad been fully pulled out of her system and she stopped thrashing, her eyes fluttering shut with hushed, raspy whimpers.
Mavris sighed and removed his hands from her stomach. The venom of the Onyx Flower pooled on the floor, mixed with her blood. He backed away from the table.
I moved to Kya’s side and pulled her trembling body to me, cradling her in my arms. The wound was beginning to heal but her body was still cold and covered in her sweat. I placed soft kisses on her cheeks, her closed eyes, and her cracked lips.
“You’re alright.” I glanced over to my brother, who was sitting against the wall with his arms on his knees. “She’ll be okay, right?”
He nodded. “She’ll be fine. I got it all. But she’s still lost a lot of blood and she needs to rest.”
I could tell that he had overexerted himself, and that he was drained. His face had a gray tint and was covered in sweat.
“Thank you, Mav. Thank you for saving her.”
By the time Mavris had the energy to move again it was dark and I pointed him in the direction of an alcove with a couch that he could rest on. Kya still slept in my arms and I carried her through the chamber down to the lower alcove with the river.
With our clothes still on I waded into the water. And still, she didn’t wake, too exhausted from the toll that the poison had taken. Her wound had healed, but it was still red and scarred, and likely would remain a permanent mark on her body. I gently removed her shredded clothes, leaving her in her undergarments as the water began to wash away the blood and sweat from her skin. Carefully dipping her head back, I ran my fingers through her hair and undid her braid. Her brown hair cascaded in the flow of the water like a sheet. I held her suspended in the river and rubbed her body with a soft cloth until all of the blood was gone.
This shouldn’t have happened. I should have taken her out of there. The dark wielder was far more powerful than I had ever imagined, yet he hadn’t used his magic against her.
He wanted her alive.
I pondered that as I took her back to the alcove with the bed and changed her into one of my shirts before placing her in the sheets. She stirred when I crawled in next to her and she rested her head on my bare chest with a sigh. There were so many questions running through my mind while I rubbed circles on her back.
Where did Daegel go? Is he injured? Will he come back? How did he get to Nikan or even know who he was to Kya? How does the magic work?
We needed to know more. He had chanted in another language, similar to that of the book. I needed to find it. I needed to go back to the palace to find the book, talk with Hakoa, check on the refugees, and assess the damage. But I didn’t want to leave her…
“Are you awake?”I asked Mavris through his mind.
“Yeah. Just reading one of your shit books about history. Seriously,you really need some better reading material here. This is boring as fuck. Nice cave by the way. Very dragon of you.”
The side of my mouth ticked up.“Come down here. Past the chamber and down the tunnel on the right.”
