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I stared at it, my body freezing up, not wanting to blink in case this was all an illusion.
“Holy shit…” Katrina clasped her mouth. “Is that what I think it is?”
It was the nectar.
The barely bite-sized piece Dr. Novikov had cut back in the dragon caves. I hadn’t even thought about it, convinced it was lost. Instead, it had been stuck at the bottom of Sprig’s backpack thewholetime, too small for us to feel its power, buried along with his cape I had shoved deep inside and forgotten about.
Holy. Shit.
Reaching down, my heart hammered with hope and desperation.
“Don’t touch it!” Tsai yelled, her hands up. “I can feel it. It’s too powerful.”
Being blind made her far more sensitive than the rest of us, feeling things we could not. I never doubted or questioned her, but my brain was not operating on logic.
“I don’t care! She’s dying!” I screamed back, going for the item again.
Before I could grab it, Sprig zoomed in, snatching it from the top of my boot and scurrying back to AB, unfazed by the energy it contained. Sub-fae seemed like they were immuned to some fae magic.
“Open her mouth.” Sprig dashed up to AB’s face. Cooper tilted Annabeth’s head back, opening her jaw, her chest no longer moving.
Sprig held up the piece over her, his head tilting. “This kind of looks like honey.”
“Fucksake! Give it to her now!” I roared, crashing down next to the other side of AB’s body.
Sprig let it go, the nectar dropping onto her tongue. Cooper closed her mouth, tilting her head back as I rubbed her throat, trying to get it down.
“Come on…” My focus was entirely on her, looking for any sign of life, any change. Every second that passed rose panic up my spine. Were we too late? Was she already gone? “Come on, come on, come on,” I chanted.
Birds chirped and crickets buzzed with evening activities, but only silence came from Annabeth, her lungs not moving.
Cooper’s breathing grew short and shallow, his eyes firing red, his shirt starting to tear, the beast taking over. “No!” He shook his head, not ready to accept the fact she was dead. “Aaannnnna!” He shook her again.
We were too late.
“Nooooooooooooooooo!” His bellow howled through the atmosphere, the sunset splashing across the sky in deep reds, oranges, and blues like his emotions were being painted. His anger, his love, his heartbreak, waiting for the darkness to set in because that was the color his soul was now.
That moment of hope would be his end. Cooper wouldn’t come back… and a big part of me wouldn’t either.
The heavy silence strangled me, my heart and head still at odds, staring down at my little sister. The only way I could continue to breathe was by imagining her and Lexie together. That at least they had each other.
“ButBebinn,” Sprig whimpered, his fingers caressing her cheek. “You said you’d stay.”
I blinked. Why did her cheeks look so rosy? Wait… why didn’t she look as gaunt and bony as before?
“Cooper,” I puffed out his name, not daring to take my eyes off her. “Look.”
His head jerked, following my focus, noticing the glow starting to emanate around her. “Anna?” Desperation had his eyes darting all over her, his hands touching her face.
Her body started to twitch violently, her limbs flailing as if she were being electrocuted, tossing Sprig off her chest and tumbling him to the floor.
“Anna!” Cooper’s tone pitched in terror as her spine arched, her head slamming against the deck, convulsing brutally, foam pooling from her lips.
A cry broke from my mouth, my hands trying to protect her head, feeling like I was watching the last throes of death. I had witnessed many die—horribly violent deaths. But nothing felt so tortuous as helplessly observing someone you love perish—painfully—and not be able to do a thing. Kat squeezed my shoulder, undoubtedly knowing I felt broken.
Cooper tried to hold AB down, liquid from his eyes spattering across her cheek. His calls for her were white noise as her form seized, like it was being poisoned, tortured, and twisted. A guttural noise vibrated in her chest, and then her body went utterly still.
Deathlystill.
