Bullet of Frost (An Iron Fey Fanfiction)

Chapter 14

All I knew was pain. And darkness. I floated in and out of consciousness, only vaguely aware of being raced back to the Winter court, the horses jostling gallop and the guard's tight hold on me making me sick to my stomach.

    I think I blacked out about five times. We didn't stop until we reached the borderline of winter territory in the Wyldwood. Then, someone decided to rest because the horses were nearly run to exhaustion, and it would do us no good if they all collapsed. I remember being set on the ground underneath a tree with a cloak draped over me. I was so warm. I liked the feel of the cold against my skin.
 
    Someone had tried to bandage my wound but that only made it hurt worse. Calx stood watching over me, and didn't even flinch when I rolled to the side and puked up my guts. I don't remember anything between then and the next time I opened my eyes, which was in my bedroom.

    A single candle sat on my nightstand, throwing the room into shadows. I blinked heavily and turned my head to the side. A healer was speaking heatedly to a figure cloaked in shadow, which I soon recognized as my mother.

"Apparently, the bullet just skimmed his side, so it is not physically in him. Yet, he's lost a lot of blood and there was something the bullet was coated with...I do not how to help him further, Your Majesty. All we can do now is keep cold rags on him to bring down the fever..." the healer said, clearly worried, whether for her life if she couldn't save me or mine.

   "Do what you can for him," Mab said lowly, fear lacing her voice ever so slightly.

    I blacked out a moment later.

*****

   I don't know how long I slept. Minutes, hours, days, years? All I knew when I woke again, was that I was very warm and it felt as if my blood and bones had been set on fire. Even my eyes burned. Panic laced through me, which only intensified the pain.

    I whimpered and tried to calm down, but every time I opened my eyes all I felt was fire. "It's all right, brother,"a calm, low voice said to my left. I quickly glanced over, the act of turning my head taking great effort.
"The healers are doing everything they can," Sage murmured, taking a freezing cloth and placing it on my forehead. It felt so good. I closed my eyes again.

   The next time I awoke, not only did I still feel on fire, but now it felt as if I was made of lead. It took all the effort in me to move my eyes over to see Rowan sleeping in the chair beside my bed. I had only seen him sleep a couple times in my life, and both times he'd been having a nightmare, his face contorted in a frown.

   Now, sadness was etched like a carving all over his face. I swallowed and let oblivion take me again...

   "He's been out of it for about three days," I heard the healer say when I opened my eyes for what felt like a thousand years later. Only three days? I almost didn't believe her, but then I remembered the Fey couldn't lie.

    "There is no cure that we have access to," the healer continued. "He doesn't have much time left, Your Majesty."
"Then find one!" Mab snapped, being sure to keep her voice down. "I will not lose my son like I lost-" she cut herself off.

    I suddenly remembered something a certain girl I'd tried to break said to me before she walked away. "Wait," I said sluggishly, and both Mab and the healer jumped about three feet in the air.

    Mab rushed over to me and felt my forehead, then quickly drawing her hand back. "You need to rest," she said, her tone soft.

"But...know where to...find the cure," I said, resisting sleep. "Adne...has it...This was becoming difficult.

  "Who is Adne?" Mab asked, gently smoothing back my hair.

   "In Welkin...Adne has the cure..."

  And I was out once again.