In The Mist of Shadows

Chpt. 29

The door to the healer's chambers was slammed open, the hinges groaning. "Madja!" Rhysand's voice boomed as the healer quickly jumped out of bed and descended the steps to her loft to the bottom floor. Rhysand had the Spymaster and another male she didn't recognize put Adela down on a cot.

Holy Mother and Cauldron. Her body was covered in blood, her face lifeless.

"Help-Help her!" The High Lord was sobbing, as well as the rest of them as they poured in. Other healers woke as well, running around to get supplies.

Madja was quick to go over to the cot. "Move, MOVE!" She shooed them away except her High Lord and Lady. She felt Adela's chest that was barely moving. "What happened?"

"I think she burnt herself out. She was using her powers and fighting with all her physical strength as well- Her heart gave out but it's beating now... Right?" Seeing the High Lord in such fear was bizarre but Madja felt her chest again and nodded. "I think I broke a few ribs, I just wanted her to breathe- I didn't-" He began sobbing in which Feyre held him and guided him to a chair nearby.

Madja placed a metal instrument on Adela's ribs to listen for gurgling, to see if something was punctured from her rib. Nothing sounded abnormal so she moved to look into her eyes. They were rolled into the back of her head, too far to say she was just sleeping.

Another healer came with an array of herbs. She grabbed a stick of one and broke it in front of Adela's nose. She didn't wake, the High Lord began sobbing harder at that, almost roaring in pain. She took a closer look, running her hands along Adela's face. Her skin was cold like she was dead, but her heart was beating. Her eyes are too far back and she didn't wake at the smell of the herb... But she was breathing? Madja checked again before she began to think. "How long was her heart not beating?" She finally asked.

"Rhys." Feyre cooed as the High Lord continued to sob, the pain he must feel after already losing so much of his blood family. "About ten minutes." Feyre answered for him, probably getting the answer through his mind.

"Get the shifting bandages." She spoke to another healer. "She's not dead." She walked to Rhysand, kneeling and taking his hands into hers. "But her soul is still stuck in the after realm. She needs time to come back."

"How long?" Feyre asked.

"There's no time limit, and there is a chance she might not-" She couldn't finish as the High Lord began truly roaring in pain now, the noise surely was heard through the whole city.

When she gave her High Lord a squeeze on the hand she stood and walked back to Adela, leaving him to his grief. In the years she has been a healer in his Court she knew he needed space before he could talk through his emotions. The Spymaster was by her cot, holding Adela's hand with impressive grip. "Some of the ribs aren't broken, but they have shifted, we have to shift them back into place." He nodded and stepped back but as soon as they were in place with a loud snap that made their stomach churn Azriel was quick to hold her hand again.

Madja told the healers to keep going despite his presence so they worked around him, washing her skin, washing and brushing her hair, and carefully undressing and dressing her in a nightgown. As they worked Madja explained to the group that nothing more could be done, it was up to her now. But they weren't ready to leave yet, so she told them all to be looked at while they were here.

Cassian, Amren and Rhysand only had a few scrapes, minor cuts that the healers cleaned out but Azriel was perfectly fine. Not even one cut on him. Not that he would let them tend to them, his only focus was being next to Adela when she woke. He wanted to be the one she saw, wanted her to know that he wasn't mad at her anymore, that he loved her. Gods if something happened to her and he spent the last of their time together mad at her decision to hide her plans from him... He surely wouldn't recover.