To Claim A Crown Book Two: The Winter Harbinger (Complete)

Chapter Thirty-One: Dagger

There is a gust of wind that bangs the front doors open. There is movement within the house with such speed that Raurlin springs to his feet. He holds a hand out and just as he opens his mouth to speak Jackson is pulled from his chair and dragged to the lounge. There is a loud painful shout that Raurlin and Naomi rush to follow after.

Jackson is lying in the middle of the lounge with a dagger buried deep in his chest. He is shaking and struggling audibly to breathe, blood splattering out his mouth and staining his face. Sarah rushes into the room and collapses to her knees with a mighty scream. The fireplace bursts into flames and the windows fly open. Horatio appears at the door and Raurlin points past him shouting "Go!"

Naomi falls to her knees beside Jackson and she cradles his head in her lap. Raurlin closely examines the dagger. With every ragged breath Jackson grows paler, his breathing weak and raspy. There is a glass crest on the top of the handle of the dagger and the glass has been broken. Naomi reaches for the dagger and Raurlin snatches her hand back.

"Don't. This is poison. You pull it out, it will only work faster. If we can figure out what poison it is we can reverse the effects. Sarah your grimoire. Sarah!"

Sarah remains at Jackson's side, wide-eyed and incomprehensive. Naomi looks from her to Raurlin. "She can't help right now. What if we taste the poison? If we know the effect it has on us we may be able to work around it?" Naomi reaches forward again but Raurlin is quicker. He picks up a piece of the glass and sucks on it. His eyes immediately turn gold.

"Wolf resin. If it's in his bloodstream..."

Naomi pushes herself to her feet and she sprints to the kitchen. She throws the cupboards open until she comes across a medical kit. She rushes back into the lounge. Raurlin is holding onto his hand and he is silently crying. Jackson forces a smile then a laugh.

"Hey...Raur...remember...when we...were kids?"

Jackson coughs and a pool of blood splatters out his mouth and runs down his chin. He lifts a hand and holds it out to Raurlin. Raurlin takes hold of his hand shaking his head. "This is now how you die, Jackson, this is not how you die."

Naomi falls clumsily to her knees beside Raurlin and she rips open the bag. "Here take this needle, a hybrid can't be affected by wolf resin. We're going to do a blood transfusion. Come beside him here. Lie down."

Raurlin complies and he drops his body alongside Jackson, clasping onto his hand tightly. Naomi tightens a rubber band around Raurlin's upper arm then along Jackson's. She waves a hand at Sarah who is still frozen in place. "Sarah, hey I need you to be here right now I need your help. Sarah!"

Sarah seems to snap back into her body and she looks at Naomi wide-eyed. She shimmies on her knees to Jackson's free arm. "Okay, I can do a spell that will pull out the infected blood but you need to make sure that the clean blood is flowing in. Do it."

Naomi presses Raurlin's arm for a vein and once she's found one she eases the needle into his skin, immediately after she finds a vein in Jackson's arm and presses a needle into his skin. The two needles are connected by a thin long tube. Raurlin's blood pushes through the looped tube. Naomi focuses on her hand intently for a moment and as if on cue her nails protrude into long claws.

She stretches over Jackson who is barely breathing and claws at his free wrist. Sarah places an open palm over the torn flesh and begins exhaling an incantation, first slowly then faster and faster. The faster she speaks the more his blood is drawn out of his body. His skin becomes increasingly pale. His breathing grows weaker and weaker with each breath. Beside him Raurlin is lying. He is crying silent tears as he watches his best friend.