The Amulet Of Nicmir (The Scripts Of Neptune, Book 1)

Chapter 40

There was blood. So, so much blood. Nyle sank to his knees beside Lillian and pressed his fingers to the slice in her skin, putting pressure, trying to stop the way her life was bleeding away from her.

He knew he couldn't. He could never keep her from getting hurt.

Her eyes were wide, searching, frantic. Her fingers, slick with red, clutched at his own, shaking, weak. Her whole body trembled as she slipped into shock, tears running down her cheeks. A sob escaped her lips.

"Hey. Hey." In his own ears, Nyle's voice was broken. Terrified. His fingertips left little red streaks on her face as he cleared hair from her cheeks. She was so pale. Too pale. "Lil, look at me. Look at me. Stay with me. Please. I can't—" His voice broke. "We can't lose you. You'll be okay. You have to be okay."

Her eyes were already drifting closed. Nyle fought how his throat was closing up, fought the tears.

No.

Crynia slid in the sand as she sank on the opposite side of Lillian's trembling body. "Oh gods," she said, digging one hand into her hair, her eyes wide. Panting from the fight, she dropped her daggers. "Oh gods. Here."

Somehow, she'd gotten a hold of Lillian's medicine bag. The head riders were already snapping commands to their inferiors, collecting the camels and everything else. They skirted Sam and Chad as they ran towards where Lillian had collapsed. Chad's arm was dripping blood, staining the sand.

Crynia pressed a crumpled bandage to Lillian's wound. It was soaked in seconds. Swearing, she pressed down. "Nyle or Sam, hold this," she spat, panic in her voice. "We have to stop the bleeding."

"And after that?" Sam's voice was shaking as much as his hands.

Crynia gave him a grave, helpless look over her shoulder. It said more than words ever could.

And Nyle knew.

Lillian wasn't going to make it.

They had no supplies, no shelter from the rising sun, nothing. The one person who might've known how to treat such a wound was the person injured. Nyle dug his fingernails into his scalp, staring helplessly as the only girl he'd ever cared for lay there, her lifeblood soaking into the sand, her eyes wild green and so, so scared. She was small, thin, bleeding. Dying.

Rain peppered the sand as the storm giants stepped over them in massive strides that shook the earth to its core. Red lightning streaked overhead, lighting the desert for miles. The riders' silhouettes as they rode on, a swathe of darkness in the sand, were black.

A whisper stole through the silence, echoing from the clouds. Soft, a breath in the humid air. So quiet it felt like a fleeting thought through the mind.

"The Great Storm awakens."

Nyle shivered as the raindrops hit his back, sliding through his hair to the ground. They hit his knuckles, blurring the blood.

"Nyle." Sam's voice broke the quiet into a thousand pieces. His tone held something that Nyle was used to hearing, but only veiled in humor. Fear. It wove itself into the air and stuck. "What do we do?"

I don't know, he thought desperately. I don't know.

***

Three hours later, the storms were gone, and the sun baked the sand to a delirious temperature. Heatwaves rippled in the distance, an undulating film against the pale blue of the sky. The scattered cactuses had come to life, showing blooms and swelling with rainwater.

Lillian was alive. For how long, Nyle didn't know. The bleeding had slowed to a faint trickle, thanks to Crynia, but they had no way of cleaning the wound, not with their water gone. It was bandaged, but Nyle knew Lillian's body wasn't strong enough to fight the infection when it came.