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You are not this. Stay with me, Niawen, Seren said.
“My lady!” Soldiers surrounded Kelyn.
“No return,” my father echoed.
I snapped to attention and pushed between the men.
Kelyn was breathing.
I managed to make out the garbled speech of a soldier’s words. “My lady, can you save him?”
“You would be dead to all those who love you,” my father said.
I am dead to all those who love me.
Dead.
No… Not dead. Alive. You are alive, Niawen, Seren said.
I nodded. Kelyn is yet alive.
As I jumped into action, my light flew into Kelyn, surging around the arrow. The head had lodged into the left lower chamber of his heart. Every beat caused more blood to leak from the chamber and tear the hole larger. Once removed, Kelyn would bleed to death in seconds. As he was, he had minutes.
“I can heal him as I move the arrow a fraction at a time,” I said.
As I pulled up on the arrow, blood flooded the space. I patched micro tears and forced the blood back into the chamber. Minutes became hours. I fought against the damage to Kelyn’s heart as I ignored mine.
Not dead. Alive.
Kelyn is alive.
I might be dead, but he will live. I imbued my soul with these words as I worked; all the while Kelyn remained unconscious.
Somehow I finished. Somehow the men helped Kelyn and me onto Seren. Somehow I held him until we arrived at the palace courtyard.
I recalled Kelyn being torn from my arms as if a piece of my soul went with him.
Kenrik met us. Yes, I last saw his terrified brown eyes before I slid into his arms, spent.
The darkness around my heart welcomed me into nightmare.
TWENTY-FIVE
I thrashed, twisting in a ribbon of cloth. It constricted around my chest, my legs, my arms. I couldn’t free myself no matter which way I turned.
“She’ll injure herself,” a woman said. “We should restrain her.”
“Leave her be,” a man replied. “I’ll watch her.”
I hissed. I groaned. I’ve doomed my soul. Deian, save me. I’m not a killer. Please forgive me!
I bolted upright. “I killed them! They’re all dead because of me!”
“Niawen!”
Pressure on my shoulders. A warm breath in my face.
“Niawen,” a man said.
