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But the closer I grew to scanning him, the more violent the sickness became, but not toward him, towardme.It licked up my arms and tried to flood into my mouth, filling my nostrils with its filth. No one around me could see, smell, or feel it, but its assault was relentless. The tendrils grasping at me were all lined with teeth, hoping to scare me away.
They’d have to do a lot more than that.
Finally,finally,after what seemed like hours, I cut the last of its defenses away and plunged my magic deep within Mad Dog, daring it to try to push me out like before. The sickness hissed and tried to resurge on me, but it couldn’t get me out.
Unfortunately, what I found within him was even worse.
Every organ in his entire body was speared through with those sharp spikes of illness, its webbing no longer delicate and patterned, instead growing like thick rose vines, covered in thorns, and dug in wherever they landed.
I knew none of it was literal, merely just my mind interpreting the magic in a way I could digest and visualize, yet the horror of it was still visceral. Whatever plague my curse had placed in him was completely consuming him from the inside out until there was nothing of the original host left.
It was all my fault.
Mad Dog let out a feeble groan as I leaned forward, Kai still anchoring at my waist so I could place my head on his chest at the midpoint between my hands. It was rare I’d ever needed to physically connect with a patient at so many physical points, but I was going to throw everything I had at this and more. The curse wasnotwinning today. I’d had the tiniest taste of what it was like not to be constantly bound by its whims, and I wasn’t going to let it steal a friend from me.
“I’ve got you,” I murmured, meaning it from the deepest wells of my soul. “I’ve got you, I’ve got you, I’ve got you,” I repeated over and over again, a mantra to fight back any doubt, but I wasn’t sure if I was convincing him or myself.
“Healer Everton, is there anything—”
“Leave her be!” Kai snapped at whoever was daring to talk to me. “If she needs something, she’ll ask.”
“Yes, but this is dangerous—”
“We know.Sheknows. Trust me, I won’t let anything happen to her.”
So much for subtlety. The entire infirmary staff would know there was something going on between us, but I didn’t care. I had to focus everything on saving Mad Dog.
I knew I couldn’t go straight for his heart. It had the most and biggest spikes, protected by an intertwined web of dark vines, so thick I could barely feel his heartbeat. No wonder he was dying. If it weren’t for the fast intervention of the palace medics, he’d already be gone.
That thought bolstered me, and I tugged at the energy flowing through my bond with Kai, wrapping it around me as I went for the spikes in Mad Dog’s kidneys.
Just like before, a searing pain lanced through me the moment I took one out, but it was less of a random whip and more like a tactical strike, as if someone warped lightning into a rope and lassoed it around my neck, yanking it tightly so I couldn’t even breathe.
I gasped to desperately draw in a breath, but I didn’t stop. I used the scalpel of my magic to cut the spike out, burning through it just as it burned through me.
I was sweaty and shaking by the time the first one disintegrated, but there was so much more to go. I didn’t overwhelm myself by looking too far ahead, however, only allowing myself to think of the next step, then the next.
By the sixth spike, the kidneys were freed, and my magic enveloped them, coaxing cells to replace themselves and injuries to fade. I beckoned the water in his body to cool the burn of the pain, and the iron in his blood to bolster his strength. I summoned the energy below our feet, floating in the air, and welling up through me.
That worked, bit by bit.
It was slow going, and painful. I was sure once I was done, I’d need days of sleep, but that could wait. It all could until Mad Dog was safe.
But by the time I’d reached his lungs, I could feel my own well of magic running dry. The only reason I was still on my feet, still able to resist the ravenous, wiggling arms of the sickness, was because of everything Kai was giving me. I knew I was entering dangerous territory, but I wasn’t going to stop.
“Healer Everton! I’m sensing dangerous levels of toxicity building up in your blood. You need to stop!”
I didn’t know who that was, and I didn’t care. They were irrelevant. They didn’t know my limits or what I could do. I appreciated that they had their nose trained on my vitals, but their time would be better spent helping me save my friend.
I moved onto Mad Dog’s liver that resembled a pin cushion more than an organ, and only if pins were the size of rail spikes. I knew I was soaking the front of his infirmary gown with my sweat, but I didn’t think either of us were in a state to really care.
“Here, drink this.”
I didn’t even blink when someone put a straw in my mouth. I recognized the taste of a regeneration potion as I hastily gulped it down.
“Kai, too,” I rasped, unable to even look up.
“Who?” the mystery voice asked.
