Emille

Chapter 14

Herbs. Salves. Bandages. Tonics. Rare berries and flowers. Natalia packed for every scenario. She needed to be quick. It wasn't like Peter to ask for help, and he didn't go anywhere without his medicinal supply. If he wasn't able to help Emille, it was bad.

Isa hadn't spoken a word since she'd read the text. Natalia didn't have time to see if she was okay, though. She mumbled to herself as she ran through her list of emergency aid spells one last time. She chucked her journal into the backpack of supplies, and then they were running.

On a normal day, the walk to Lover's Park would be nothing. Five to nine minutes. Natalia had walked to Lover's Park plenty of times. Why, then, was it so much further now? Maybe it had something to do with the backpack digging into Natalia's shoulders, or the weight of the long night beginning to wear on her. Or perhaps it was because while Peter was doing all of the heavy lifting for their mission, Natalia had been flirting with Isa. Exactly what Peter had asked her not to do.

Natalia was dizzy from the deja vu. She'd lived this night before. The next day, she'd awoken with no journal and no plan.

"There," Isa shouted, pointing at a pair of figures huddled next to a park bench. Isa and Natalia ran over to them, Natalia scanning the ground for Emille's body. Instead, she saw Peter.

It was bad. His upper arm looked like canned tuna, with a deep, serrated cut running from his shoulder to his elbow. Jagged pieces of skin hung from his arm, limp and dripping with a nauseating mixture of blood and green goo. His face was a light shade of green, and his eyes struggled to flutter open without rolling into the back of his head.

"It was the kimpy." A strained voice. Natalia looked up at the speaker, and had to hold down yet another wave of nausea. Emille stood above Peter, one arm clutching her abdomen. She, too, was pale and sweaty. Natalia guessed it was only adrenaline that kept her going. Blood soaked her shirt and dripped onto her pants. Too much blood.

Natalia had no room to think. Based on how much blood was leaking out of these two, it wouldn't be long before they succumbed to their injuries.

"Sit down," she ordered Emille, and began rummaging through her supplies. Isa unlocked from her frozen position and rushed to Emille's side and laid her on the ground next to Peter, propping Emille's head up on her lap.

This wouldn't be easy. Natalia had never healed injuries this serious before on one person, let alone two. If one herb was too strong, or her concentration was broken in any way, she could kill them faster than the blood loss and kimpy venom.

"We need to call the police," Isa said, her voice shaking. "Arthur didn't have any spells strong enough for this."

"No, he didn't," Natalia replied, not pausing in her assemblage of ingredients.

"We need to get them to a hospital," Isa said, her voice growing shrill. "How do we explain..."

"We don't."

Natalia knew she wasn't helping to calm Isa down, but she didn't have time for soothing words or explanations. She'd need all of her energy. She pulled beet powder out of her bag and began pouring it on the ground, creating a circle with Emille, Peter and Isa inside.

"What are you doing," Isa snapped.

"I'm casting a healing circle," Natalia replied, bending down next to Peter and smudging circles of clay on his face.

"This isn't a cold or a rash, it's–"

"I know," Natalia cut out, giving in to aggravation at last. "I'm a healer. I can fix them."