“What are you doing?” Mathilda screams, her eyes flaring wide with terror as she frantically tries to scramble back to Tane’s side.
Luna doesn’t spare a moment to answer as she slices down in one swift stroke, cutting Tane’s arm off at the elbow. Blood spurts from the stump, and my knees wobble.
The remaining mangled slab of flesh squelches to the ground. The venom keeps eating through it until nothing is left.
Luna stabs at it, dissolving the venom completely.
It’s quiet for a heartbeat.
And then all hell breaks loose again. Mina vomits in the dirt.
Mathilda sobs, the blood from Tane’s severed arm sprays her face and body.
Tane passes out, collapsing against Evander, who gently lowers him to the ground.
Luna claws at Lachlan’s belt. “Get this off! We need a tourniquet, or he’ll bleed out.”
Blood coats everything. The soil turns dark, and a coppery tang hangs in the air.
I take a deep breath, counting to four. My ability to move returns, and I jump into the fray, ripping Lachlan’s belt off while he and Luna are trying to apply pressure to Tane’s arm.
“Mina! Go grab the linens!” I order, wrapping the belt as tight as I can around the amputation. Warm blood slicks my hands and fingers, making it difficult to wrap the belt tightly. It oozes down my arms and splatters onto my pants.
She sprints from the training grounds, dirt kicking up in her wake. A strong wind blows through the grounds, the coolness of the air sweeping the dirt up and coating it into the slickness of our sweat and the blood.
“Mathilda, get it together and go get a healing tonic. Now,” Luna orders. “Lena, a little tighter right here.” She nods to where her hands are, and I pull the belt tighter. The blood has stopped spurting out, but it’s still pooling onto the ground below us. The color is almost black where it puddles underneath Tane.
Mathilda hiccups and clambers to her feet before racing off in the direction Mina went.
“Is—is he going to die?” I whisper.
Trying to hold the fractured pieces of myself together.
I can’t lose anyone else.
“No,” Luna snarls. “He’s going to be fine. He’ll just have to learn how to fight with one arm.”
We sit there for what feels like hours, holding our friend together and watching his chest rise and fall, before Mathilda and Mina come racing down the path to us.
Luna sighs and rips the linens and vial from their hands before grumbling to herself. “It was a good thing the big guypassed out.” She steadily wraps the rest of his arm with white linens that immediately turn a bright red.
“Hold him tight. He will not like this when he wakes,” she says to Lachlan and Evander.
Luna grips Tane’s face, wrenching his mouth open before tipping the entire vial into the back of his throat. Mina holds Mathilda’s hand as they both watch Tane with a mixture of horror and despair.
He will never be the same after this.
His eyes flash open, and he thrashes around. Lachlan and Evander grunt, trying to hold him still. They use their entire bodies, their faces turning red under the strain.
“Tane!” Luna yells. “Hold still. Let the vial work and don’t rip off those linens.” Her words either don’t register, or the pain is too much because he continues to convulse under Lachlan and Evander’s hold.
“Mathilda, do something,” Mina whispers, urging her forward.
Mathilda takes a shaky step forward before collapsing to her knees at his side. Tears streak down her cheeks, leaving trails in the splattered blood as she caresses his face. His jaw turns to stone as he grits his teeth to keep from screaming.
“Shhh,” Mathilda whispers. “It’s going to be alright. You’re going to be fine.”
The love pouring from her eyes is enough to make me look away, feeling like an intruder at a pivotal point in their relationship. I glance at the quartz throne just in time to see the last drop of venom drop from the chair and disintegrate into the basin. Now that the haze of green is gone, a small globe carved in the middle of the seat is visible behind inches of quartz. Tane pierced it perfectly, right at the bottom.
