Then, I thought back to the first time I had experienced one of his episodes. He used my flames to somehow burn away the darkness until he could breathe again.
I quickly shoved Malakai to the side and laid beside Tristan, scooting as close as I could to his chest. His eyes followed me, the only part of his body that could still be moved by his own will.
When I called my flames, they responded in an instant. Slowly, my veins began to glow until fire seeped from my skin and crawled onto Tristan’s face, where I cupped his cheeks. The light connected with his markings and started to force their retreat, but they weren’t working as fast as they had before. It wasn’t enough. That’s when I thought of the cave, and how we connected our light.
“Do you remember the stars? When you told me what we are to each other?” I asked him.
His head gave a slight jerk, resembling somewhat of a nod.
“Do what you did then,” I whispered. Closing my eyes, I tried to brighten the flame, searching for the source of its light, willing it to findhis. When I opened them, the glow in my own eyes reflected brightly back at me through his. “Come on, Tristan. You can do it.”
I brought his hand to my cheek and felt him press against my skin, and I knew that he was trying. But as the seconds passed, his lips turned bluer, and his resolve was clearly beginning to weaken.
“You barely need to try, Tristan. Call to it. Feel my soul…yoursoul. We are just two halves, remember?”
The faintest light shimmered over his blue eye, but disappeared just as fast.
“You can do it,” I promised. “Don’t let him hurt you again, Tristan. Remember what you told me in the tunnels? They are just strings. Strings thathecontinues to pull, dangling you on this bridge of darkness. Let me be your light. Follow me back.”
The black vines appeared to stop moving, but they hadn’t begun to recede quite yet.
“You’re doing it, Mor,” Malakai said quietly. “Don’t stop. He isn’t breathing yet.”
Gently, I raised my lips toward his and felt their icy glaze as they pressed against mine. When I pulled back, Tristan’s eyes were closing slowly, and the smallest tear streaked down his cheek onto the cold, stone floor beneath us.
“Come back to me, Tristan.”
When his eyes finally opened back up, he sucked in a breath so quickly that it made me jump. His chest heaved up and down as the black markings began to retreat.
“He needs to rest,” Malakai said.
I nodded in agreement, slipping from Tristan’s hold so I could stand up. “I’ll help you walk him to his room.”
It usually took Tristan a little while to recuperate from anormalepisode. This one… It would probably be a lot harder for him.
Carefully, Malakai and I lifted Tristan until his arms dangled over each of us. Still panting, his head slumped forward in exhaustion, he tried his best to walk with our assistance.
“It’s alright, Tristan,” I assured him. “You’ll feel better soon.”
“P—Promise…” he tried to say, his words coming out slurred and muffled. “Don’t… leave…”
I understood what he meant to say.Theywere here now, and he likely assumed that the first thing I would do is run back to them. Run back tohim.
“They can wait.”
We finally made it to his room and got him in the bed.
He reached for me just as I knelt onto the mattress to join him. But then I heard distant yelling coming from the hallway.
“Morrigan!” my mother screamed.
I turned to Malakai, confused. After shrugging, he walked toward the bedroom door, and as her voice grew closer, I finally heard the agonizing panic in her voice. It formed a heavy, sickening knot in my stomach.
I pulled away from Tristan, but he gripped my wrist to stop me. That’s when my mom made it to the door, out of breath and frantically grabbing at Malakai’s arms.
“Whoa there, Lady G. What’s wrong?” he asked her.
Completely ignoring him, her eyes darted past his shoulder and straight at me. “It’s Azrael,” she breathed, shaking from fear. “He heard you all outside. He… He knows the lords are here.”
