If only—
“Lux!”
Shaw turned as she did, blinking against the unusual sight of Morana running, hair a tangled mass and skirt hiked to her knees. She held tight to the wound at her side.
“Morana.”
“A woman,” she sucked in a breath, “came. Searching—for a—healer. There’s no one—left. Here.” Morana thrust a vial of lifeblood into Lux’s hands. The very last. “Take it.”
Lux’s entire body shook, and she clutched it to her chest. Without wasting precious seconds on more questions, she dropped to her knees. She unstopped the vial with quivering fingers, only made steady by Shaw’s cool palms wrapped around them in support.
Together, they poured every last drop down Aline’s throat.
To Death, she said,You cannot have her.
“Come back, Aline,” Shaw whispered against his sister’s hair.
“Your house—”
Lux ignored Morana, unable to breathe and refusing to blink.
The lung-filling gasp that followed next forced Aline into Shaw’s crushed embrace. “Saints,” he breathed, ragged with relief, and Lux almost collapsed then, in hearing it.
Aline’s arms came around her brother’s neck in return. Her small shoulders began to shake. “What happened?”
Shaw’s muffled reply could hardly be heard. “I should have known better. I almost lost you.”
Several moments passed that way, with Shaw and Aline murmuring to one another, and Lux scrunching her eyes closed,hands stacked over her mouth as she attempted to swallow her emotion away. She opened them to see Aline pull back, then push. She stood and glanced down her blood-soaked front, and her mouth gaped wide for a moment before clamping closed, her gaze raising tentatively to meet Lux’s. “I’m sorry I didn’t listen.”
Lux swiped at her eyes and willed her chin to cease its quivering. “I’m sorry I couldn’t stop it before it began.”
“You saved my brother. I shouldn’t expect you to defeat a devil in the same day, though it would have been nice to have this dress for longer.”
Lux’s welling tears dried in an instant and she snorted.
Aline’s voice dropped to a loud whisper. “What did you do toher?”
“Your devoted mother begged me to save you, so I did.” Morana glowered, straightening her skirt. “And now I regret it.”
Aline’s mouth fell open for a moment before she burst into laughter. “Honest people are my favorite. Don’t worry, you’re still the most beautiful, even with a crow’s nest on your head.”
Morana blushed with gratitude, patting her mass of hair. “Thank you for saying so.”
Lux sought Shaw from behind Aline. When he made to stand at last, she reached out a hand to help him. He took it.
It chilled her to the bone.
“Where’s my mother now?” Aline asked Morana.
“I gave her the keys to the prison. I’ve met a few people as I ran here, but if there’s going to be any number of survivors, I assumed it’d be there.”
“Would you mind taking me to her?” Aline worked through her tangled blonde tresses with her fingers.
Morana smiled. A true one that creased the corners of her eyes. “Yes. And I have just the thing for your hair.”
“Ourhair.” Aline fell into step beside the former mayor’s daughter. “Are you coming?” She glanced back, her eyes meeting her brother’s and Lux’s in turn.
“We will meet you there,” he said.
