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22
Malcom and Kyle helped get Alec situated on the table while the young witch looked on.
“Does she have a name?” I whispered to Sheila.
“Star,” the witch said without looking up.
“Beautiful name,” I said.
“Guess they had big plans for me until my sight was taken. Once my eyes faded, they no longer called me anything.” She moved closer to Alec.
“Parents can be awful.” We had a lot in common.
Star hummed absentmindedly, her attention elsewhere. She was examining Alec’s wounds, her long, thin fingers trailing down his arms, gliding over the cuts on his stomach, then traveled down to his feet.
As far as I could tell, her lack of traditional vision didn’t hold her back at all. Her fingers were nimble and sure, and her brow furrowed as she made her assessments.
“He’s slipping,” she said.
“What do you mean?” Sheila asked.
My chest tightened and I felt like a lead weight fell into the pit of my stomach.“She means he’s dying.”
“He should already be dead, honestly. Whoever gave him that much toxin didn’t intend for him to survive it.”
I sucked in a sharp breath. “It wasn’t meant for him. It was meant for me.”
“Well, I imagine, had the assailant succeeded in striking you, your friends would have had to stop to bury you along the way. His connection with his wolf, and his hunger for life are keeping him alive. I can barely feel your wolf. For a future alpha, you’re not as strong as you should be.”
Every word about me was accurate. I wasn’t as strong as I should be. I wasn’t connecting fully with my wolf. If it had been me, I’d be dead. Instead, Alec was hanging by a thread. My throat stung, and my whole body felt heavy with grief. Alec risked everything for me. I didn’t even care that it had almost been me instead. If he died, I couldn’t live with myself. I’d rather it be me than him. “How do we help him? There has to be a way. Anything. Tell me what to do.”
“Well, we can wait and see if his wolf is strong enough to fight this off. It could take days, and he’s likely to get worse before he gets better. Or…”
“Or, what?” I asked.
“We can test the antidote on him,” she said.
“Is it ready?” Sheila asked.
Star shrugged. “It might be.”
“What does that mean?” Malcom blurted out. “It is or it isn’t.”
“It’s not that simple,” Star said. “I’ve been working on it for years, but I’ve yet to test it on a living shifter.”
“Do you think it will work?” I asked.
“It could,” she said.
“Will it cause more harm?” I asked.
“It shouldn’t, but I could be wrong,” she said.
She didn’t strike me as someone who was wrong often, but I didn’t know her well enough to trust my instincts with that.
I walked over to Alec and set my hand on his heart. His breaths were slow and uneven, his chest making a rattling sound with each exertion. I closed my eyes and focused on his wolf. There was a tiny flicker of recognition. My wolf could sense his, but it was so weak. I wasn’t an expert by any means, but I could tell he was dying.
This was Alec. If there was anything we could do to save him, we had to try. I opened my eyes and stepped away from him before turning to face Star. “His wolf won’t last much longer.”
