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I stopped in my tracks to stare at her balefully, suspicion clogging my veins. “You should have done more!”
“There’s no time for this right now,” Aradia told me urgently. “She’s in a bad way.”
“Who was it? Have they been stopped?”
“I can’t say.”
“You can’t or won’t?” I insisted, starting after her again.
“I can’t. I don’t know. It was a spell, not a being. It took her and…” Aradia trailed off, her words making little sense. “She’s in a bad way.”
Dread overcame me, but I didn’t fire off the litany of questions that filled my mouth. It was clear that the enchantress genuinely had no answers for me, and pushing her would get me nowhere.
“Is she alive?”
“For now.”
That was not reassuring, but it made me move faster than I’d ever moved in my life.
Through the maze of halls we continued, twisting and turning until we ended up in the back gardens where a flock of guards made a circle.
“Clear the way for the Alpha King!” Aradia called out.
Immediately, the guards stepped aside, the fear of me and contrition in their faces tangible. But my gaze was fixated on the crumpled figure on the ground. My stomach sank into my shoes as I sprinted to Zephy’s side. Dropping to my knees, I picked up her pale cheeks, my head swinging wildly toward the onlookers.
“What happened?” I screamed. “How did this happen?”
“I don’t know, Alpha. When I found her, she was caught in a black cloud. She was only released when I called out.”
I wasted no time collecting Zephy in my arms and rising with her half-breathing body, racing from the courtyard toward the palace.
“Secure the perimeter!” I shouted at the guards. “Control the threat!”
I didn’t look back to see if they were obeying my instructions as I sprinted forward, building my inner healing power as I ran. Every step I took, I felt Zephyrine slipping more away from me.
Aradia kept stride with me, but I forbade her from following.
“You will protect this palace!” I growled at her, sweat breaking out over my brow. “Why was she harmed? How did the shroud get permeated?”
“I don’t know, Cade, but this dark magic is powerful and—”
“I don’t want excuses!” I whiplashed, my eyes glued to Zephyrine’s waxen complexion. I was losing her, and the thought terrified me.
My steps quickened, and I was flying through the long halls of Ironhelm Place toward the medical bay. When I looked again, Aradia had vanished, but my focus was not on the enchantress.
“Zephy,” I murmured, urging the fae back into consciousness as I laid her on one of the gurneys. “Wake up now.”
She didn’t move, her breathing shallow and thready. The last of her life hung in the balance, and I knew what I had to do. Closing my eyes, I extended my hands over her abdomen, willing all my healing energy forward. But in my current state of upset, it was difficult to will my abilities forward, and my fangs extended in lieu of my curative prowess.
I shook my hands, my eyes opening, and a tremor rushed through Zephy’s slender frame, alarming me.
“Oh, no, no, you don’t,” I growled, touching her face. “Don’t you leave me!”
She struggled to breathe, but her chest strained, the twist of her body from the fall mangling her form and twisting my heart at the sight. Again, I forced myself to fixate only on the life slipping away in front of me. I didn’t need anyone to tell me that I was running out of time, that Zephy’s life hung in the balance, and I couldn’t afford to let the panic inside me overwhelm me. I had to summon all of my remedial power and cure her before it was too late.
Again, I spread my palms over her, closing my eyes and clearing my mind, willing my fangs back into my gumline.
You will not die, not under my watch, Zephyrine. You will heal and wake, and we will conquer this threat together. But first, you have to wake up.
