He spun on his heel and moved briskly toward the alley that connected Market Street to one of the sections that held various homes.
“She’s this way. Her Vessel is still with her, but her injuries are . . . extensive.”
As we approached, I could see a large hulking man, skin a deeper brown than even Holt’s, cradling the body of a smaller woman. Her grey-flecked black hair had fallen from her braid and tendrils stuck to her sweaty, pale face. His eyes flicked to us, a question in them for Rohak, before he set her body down gently. Her head rolled to the side, her arm flopping bonelessly.
She looked dead, and I wasn’t certain my healing could do anything to help, but I knelt next to her anyway and felt for a pulse. To my shock, therewas a weak flutter in her neck, but her skin was too clammy and cold. She would die from blood loss and the shock of trauma if I didn’t move quickly.
I scanned her body for injuries and sucked in a breath when I saw her chest.
There was a gaping hole over her heart, exposing bone and muscle. Blood leaked out of the wound with every slow beat of her heart.
“Whathappenedto her?” I hissed.
“Pain Mage. Burrowed Pain inside her heart. She tried to claw it out.” Rohak said it factually, but I could hear the undercurrent of pain in his words.
He cared for her.
“I . . . I don’t know how much I can do for her,” I admitted.
The Vessel’s hand shot out and captured the wrist of my hand that was lying loosely on her stomach, just below the wound. He didn’t speak, but his eyes said everything his voice couldn’t. I understood in that look alone that this man would die without her, his soul tightly tied to hers as if they were one instead of separate entities.
He loves her. Deeply.
And I understood. I felt like my heart and a piece of my soul were ripped from my body when I watched Holt die. I couldn’t imagine tying yourself to another and loving them wholly, only to have half of your soul ripped from you without warning.
It would destroy him.
I placed my other hand on top of his and squeezed.
“I will try,” I whispered. “But this is beyond my salves. I will have to use, uhm, something else.”
The Vessel cocked his head at me.
“What is something else?” Rohak’s words were as tight as his body.
“B-Blood Magic,” I managed to eke out. “Runes. I cannot guarantee they will work or that she will be the same as she was if she wakes, but it’s the only thing I can do at this point. Unless you’d like me to ease her passing?” The Vessel’s nails dug into my skin, hard, and I gave him a grim smile.
“I thought not.” We released each other’s hands at the same time and I started stripping the woman’s top from her body. Rohak turned away from her nakedness and I laughed internally.
“It’s just flesh, Rohak,” I said as the woman’s Vessel helped mework.
“Yes, well, I’d rather not,” he said somewhere above my head.
“Suit yourself,” I said as I finished stripping her bare. “What’s your name?” I asked the Vessel as I hastily cleaned her skin with the now torn shirt.
The Vessel grunted and gestured to his throat.
“He cannot speak,” Rohak grunted. “His name is Thandi, at least that’s what Sol told us when they first Bonded.”
“Thandi, I will need your blood for a few of the runes. Her healing and power will need to be connected to another’s. Since you are already Bonded, I figured this wouldn’t be a big ask.”
Thandi nodded, rolling up his sleeves to his elbows.
I copied his movements and removed my dagger from the sleeve in my boot, quickly cutting his palm.
“Hold your palm over the street, don’t let any wayward blood drip on her while I work, please,” I said as I pushed his hand back on his side of Sol. Then, I blocked out all the outside noise and distractions until I heard nothing but a faint hum in my ears.
I needed to concentrate for this type of rune work. I’d seen the runes before in one of Sharol’s books that I stole one day, but I had never seen the magic performed, let alone done it myself.
