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“Kaori? Raven?” I asked, gripping Gaige tighter.
Emelia careened from one branch to the next, never missing a beat. “Already in the hospital wing.”
“Alert them of our arrival.” I dug my heels into my Zeelah, and she whinnied in response. Sweat had long since formed and dried against her neck and chest. We’d only paused once in our journey, and it’d been brief. Just long enough for Calem to shadow walk to Hireath and find Kaori. We needed their help. Our resident healer was knowledgeable, but beast wounds required an entirely different skill set.
“On it,” Iov shouted back. He and his sister cut through the trees faster than we could round the bend, and they were gone from our view within seconds. On my right, Rook kept close to my mount and vaulted over thorn-laden vines with practiced, sure footing. To my left, Okean. His hide was full of shallow cuts from errant barbs from the forest, but he never yowled. Their muscles must have ached, but they didn’t falter. We only slowed when we came to the winnow point just outside of Cruor’s territory.
Shadows gathered beneath our feet and surged around us like roaring rivers, thrusting us forward without us having to move at all. As quickly as they’d appeared, the tendrils dispersed in a burst. The void deposited us outside the mangled iron fencing surrounding Cruor, and we sped through the open gates riddled with moss and vines. Ozias and Calem dismounted first and rushed to my side. Gently, I eased Gaige down to their waiting arms.
We left our mounts outside and threw open the double doors into the foyer. The assassins lingering there were stricken with concern. We moved past them to take the stairs up to the second story, Rook, Okean, and Felicks on our heels. I barely remember crossingthe loft and pushing open the doors into the medical wing. Bleach and lemon stung my nose as polished silver instruments winked at us from open wooden shelves. A row of unoccupied cots stretched across the floor, but the room was far from empty. Three women stood stock-still by the nearest cot, their eyes locked on Gaige.
Gripping the metal railings, I nodded to the stark white sheets. “Here.”
Ozias and Calem gently laid down Gaige before backing away to make room for our healer, Uma. Dressed in a long-sleeved gown with gloves secured over her hands, she fixed a cloth mask over her mouth and nose. She had decades’ worth of knowledge when it came to herbal remedies and procedures, but that didn’t quell the roiling fear in my gut. Especially when her soft periwinkle-blue gaze snapped to mine with fervor. Creases lined the space between her brows, along her forehead. Creases of doubt.
Fortunately, she wasn’t alone.
“You idiot,” Raven bit out, but there wasn’t a trace of anger in her words. She moved to the foot of the bed and placed her palms flat on either side of Gaige’s feet. Her hair, a brilliant shade of crushed copper, fell in front of her saffron-colored eyes. Stunning ink whorls covered her warm, tawny skin, and she dug her sharp nails into the sheets.
Wordlessly, Ozias came to her side and draped an arm around her shoulders. She trembled beneath his touch, but didn’t retreat like she used to.
The third woman, Kaori, moved to Gaige’s head. “What happened?” With gentle, delicate fingers, she wiped sweat from his brow. Ever the picture of quiet sophistication and strength, Kaori’s dark, oval eyes were inquisitive and sharp, even when full of concern for her longtime friend. Glossy, ebony hair spilled over her pale skin, and she brushed it off her shoulder.
“It was a Slimack,” I said, my knuckles turning bone-white as I gripped the cot harder. Beside me, Felicks rubbed against my leg—a small sign of comfort. I recounted the events as best I could, occasionally allowing Calem or Ozias to interrupt and clarify details I may have missed.
“Felicks wouldn’t attempt to heal it,” I said in a whisper, dropping my eyes to the beast winding between my ankles.
“It would’ve killed him,” Raven said, voice dangerously low and full of an emotion I didn’t want to name. “Slimack bile is capable of disintegrating anything. They vomit on things occasionally to break down denser material for consumption.”
“What about mimko extract?” Ozias asked. He glanced down at Raven before looking to Uma. “We used it on Gaige before, when he’d been poisoned by a Yimlet.”
I’d almost forgotten about that injury—it’d felt like years ago when Yazmin had attacked her people and upturned our world. Gaige had been struck by a creature that’d left a weeping wound across his abdomen. Uma and Ozias had been able to eradicate the poison spreading through his veins and stitch him up, although the scar was still there. But that wound had been fresh—this was nearly two days’ old. The Slimack’s bile wasn’t even present on the surface anymore. All we were left with was an elongated gash on Gaige’s thigh that wouldn’t close and a network of ivy-green veins spiderwebbing across his body.
As if echoing my thoughts, Kaori shook her head. “This…this is too deep.” A single wrinkle formed between her manicured brows. “We can use Stella’s saliva.”
Calem blanched. “Gaige is already having enough trouble controlling his shadows. I’m worried what that would do to him.” Kaori looked up at him, a flicker of unspoken understanding passing between them. Stella was Kaori’s Ossillix, legendary feline—andthe very beast responsible for Calem’s still-beating heart. He’d fallen in our first battle against Hireath, and she’d saved him. She’d also given him a wild, hair-trigger monster that was almost impossible to control. Wresting the beast in his veins into some semblance of submission had taken an enormous amount of work, and it was something he still actively practiced.
Calem was right—it was the last thing Gaige needed.
“Well…” Uma gently prodded at the opening in his thigh, and ivy liquid, so dark it bordered on black, squelched onto the cot. “We can always drain him.”
“Drain him?” My grip grew impossibly tighter.
She nodded. “Honestly, I think the only reason he’s still alive is because of our restorative powers. That’s slowing the poison’s spread, but it’s not killing it. If it reaches his heart…” Suddenly, she tore his tunic away, scattering buttons and thread across the tile floor. Ringing louder than the bell outside Moeras erupted in my ears. Ivy sludge had tracked all the way up his stomach and wrapped his ribs. His skin was paper-white, blanched and sweaty, and the poison pulsed in his veins with every ragged inhale, worming closer to his heart.
Kaori considered this for a breath before giving a definitive nod. “Thankfully, he’s unconscious. We’ll need to start immediately.”
“He’s dying,” I trembled, “and you’re talking about carving him open?”
Raven didn’t look at me. “We’ll need buckets to catch the blood.”
“Will that get all of it out? How can we be sure?” Ozias asked, as if this weren’t the absolute most horrendous decision in all of Lendria.
“Someone will have to act as a blood donor, and we’ll add mimko extract to help purge any remnants. It’s the only way to flushit out entirely,” Uma said. She was already rummaging through shelves and cupboards to acquire a plethora of gleaming tools. She set them on a tray and wheeled it over before taking a pair of scissors to Gaige’s clothes.
The quiet snip of shears slicing through fabric filled my ears. “I’ll do it.”
“That’s probably for the best.” Kaori gestured to an empty cot, and Calem quickly pushed it closer to Gaige’s bed. “In a way, you share the same blood, thanks to Noc. And the same magic.”
