The Princess and the Warlock

Chapitre Dix-Neuf

Words were flying past me almost as fast as wind, threading its fingers through my cropped hair. I couldn't make out what they were saying, but they sounded pleasant enough. My heartbeat was a drum in my ear, boom, boom, boom, and all I saw was the sky. Dotted along its edges were a million and one stars, all shining down, winking just at me.

And then I was staring up into a ceiling, looking at its cracked plaster and chipping paint, frowning at its lackluster. Not nearly as beautiful as the sky. Couldn't they take me back outside, where the stars were as beautiful as the prettiest jewels I'd ever owned? Apparently not.

More words, but this time, my brain snagged on a couple. "What happened?" the voice sounded angry, and familiar. Feminine.

"Two dimkains tried to lure Amora outside."

"Well, it looks like they succeeded."

I smiled up at the ceiling, letting out a breathy chuckle. Indeed, they had.

"Shit, Kaius. Did you even look at this wound?"

"Of course I did, Freesia! Why else do you think I brought her here? You're the best healer I know."

The numbness that I'd felt across my skin was interrupted by a shock of pain, and I jerked. Something tightened around me, holding me in place. "God of the Skies and Seas, okay. Okay, okay. Um, put her on the dining table."

The ceiling moved as I moved, and then I had a feeling of lostness. Like I'd faded out for a second, my vision clouding over before revealing a set of eyes directly in front of me. I started to laugh, for the eyes were still dark and lost. I wondered if these eyes knew that they were consumed by darkness.

"This is bad," the eyes said distressingly, pressing shut. "Freesia—"

"I'm trying so damn hard not to strangle you, Kaius," the invisible voice called. "So I would shut up."

"Why me? I wasn't the one who went outside!"

The invisible voice snorted. "Your eyes, idiot, tell me plenty of what you were doing. You told me you'd stopped. You promised you'd stopped."

The dark eyes had no response to that, and remained silent.

"You know when you do that your wards are weakened. So, yeah, cauldron-kisser, it's your fault."

Cauldron-kisser. That sounded funny. Was that supposed to be a swear word in the Wildwood? My ribs flexed as I laughed harder, closing my eyes against whatever surface I'd been laid upon.

I heard more words, this time the voice growing more and more distressed. "Is she okay? She's so still."

Still? What was he talking about? My giggles were making me breathless, catching and cutting off my air. It was just so funny. Did those eyes not work? I wasn't being still.

"It's the venom in the talons," the invisible voice replied, but this time, her tone was increasingly distressed. "I need to get them out. You need to hold her."

"Hold her," black eyes echoed. "Freesia—I can't—"

I opened my eyes wider as a wave of dizziness tugged at my dress, and I found a face to fit the eyes. It was crushed with lines of worry and desperation, and I didn't understand. I wanted to take the pain off of the beautiful face. A face such as this shouldn't have been so unhappy. I tried to lift my hand to its cheek, but my arm stayed firmly at my side, disobeying me.

"Amora?" The face focused on me, except it was off. Weaving in and out. Eyes small and nose large. Back and forth, back and forth. "Amora, can you hear me?"

"Yes" I wanted to say, but I forgot how to speak.

"Kaius. Hold her. I can't do it unless you hold her. 'It' being, you know, saving her life!"

My lips twitched at the voice, and I closed my eyes. Freesia, black eyes had said. It was a pretty word.

Two snakes wrapped around me, holding me in place. At first the touch was tentative, and then became firmer, more like bars around my skin. "I'm ready."

"Amora," the feminine voice called to me, but the words merely tickled my ears. "If you can hear me, hold your breath."

Not even a second after her command passed before I felt it. Pain like I'd never known before struck through me, stabbing at my spine and freezing my body, locking it up ram-rod straight. Before I had thought I was laughing, but I never made a sound. But the sound that came from my lips now was true—it was a ripped raw scream, one torn from a place that I'd never knew existed inside of me. Because this pain—oh, this pain was nothing like I'd ever imagined, and it was never ending.

Black spots dotted my vision, threatening to consume me entirely, before the voice said, "Stop, Freesia, you're hurting her!"

"Better hurting her than letting her die!"

"There has to be some other way—"

"There isn't." And the fire resumed, with a new intensity this time, digging its way deeper until it reached bone. Once it was there, nestling itself perfectly inside the marrow, did the black spots sink its teeth into my vision, taking it whole.