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It didn’t even hurt any more.
He released a long, shivering breath as oblivion finally took him.
~ * ~* ~ *~ * ~* ~ *~ * ~
“Sai!” Brigid cried when his fingers went slack in the clasp of her hands.
“Shit,” Ben cursed. “He’s bleeding out. Why didn’t he say anything? We could have saved the Q&A for later.”
“What do we do?” Annie asked, eyes widening with worry.
“I don’t suppose there’s an ER we can take him to around here.”
“I doubt Victorian medical practices would be able to help him,” Ben said with a scowl. “But we can only try. At least blood transfusions have been invented by now. Though my guess is he needs surgery, if he were human, and I’m not sure—”
“He needs to be in the sea,” Brigid cut in with absolute certainty.
She didn’t know how she knew, but she knew it with every fiber of her being.
“Sai is a sea dragon. He needs the sea.”
She thought quickly.
“The Thames is mostly salt water. It’s essentially an arm of the sea. And the nearest point is only two miles from here. It’s not the cleanest sea water, but perhaps that might help sustain him until we can get him to the actual sea.”
“As opposed to taking him to a hospital?” Annie asked doubtfully.
“He needs salt water more than anything else, I am certain of it,” Brigid insisted.
“How did you know what kind of dragon he is?” Ben asked, looking amazed.
“How did you even know he’s dragon?”
“Ride and talk,” she urged, gesturing for Annie to get back into the phaeton.
Ben handed her up and remounted his horse. Together, they rode as quickly as they dared toward the River Thames, mindful that they didn’t jostle Sai too badly and worsen his wounds.
In truth, Brigid didn’t want to talk at all. She could barely think when the lifeblood was seeping rapidly out of her fantasy prince.
No.
Not a prince. And not a fantasy.
Sai.
He was real, and he was hurting.
Dying.
She wouldn’t let that happen.
He’d saved her life just now. She witnessed the whole confrontation up close and personal. Inches from her face.
How that monstrous creature slashed at Sai over and over again, sometimes meeting its mark. How Sai barely seemed to notice the wounds he sustained, so concentrated was he on fighting it back.
How, over and over again, he put his body between the creature’s vicious attacks and Brigid. Using his weakened, wounded flesh and bones as her shield.
Those ripping fangs and slashing claws had been meant for her. One strike would have killed her instantly. And yet, she didn’t have a single scratch on her person. He’d protected her too well.
