The grass beneath her was soft. Even so, her shoulder felt bruised, but she paid no attention to it.
All she could think about right now was Timothy. He’d been trying to hide his pain from her, but she’d felt his agony through the mate bond.
He’d been injured. This hadn’t been like that fight in the alley, where the fire dragons had barely been able to touch him.
This was bad.
She hissed when she turned him around and saw that the shirt had split open at the front. It looked almost burned. The frayed edges had turned black.
Worse, his skin looked burned as well.
Or perhaps not burned—but there was a strange darkness that had begun to spread across his skin.
She swallowed, then began to carefully check for other injuries. She knew that his right wing had been wounded—and just as she had feared, she found another spot of darkness at his right wrist.
He groaned when she touched his arm. He didn’t wake up, but she could see that he was in pain. Even unconscious, there were deep lines around his mouth.
It was terrifying to see him like this. Timothy was so full of life—he was the most alive person she’d ever met.
And now it almost seemed like something was leeching the life out of him...
Shit, shit, shit. What do I do?
She wasn’t a nurse or a doctor. She wasn’t even a shifter!
I don’t know how to heal weird magical injuries! I just code games—I’m not a wizard or a cleric.
She swallowed against the rising panic. She had to stay focused.
With every passing moment, Timothy seemed to grow paler.
On a whim, she leaned over him and pressed her lips to his. She kissed him gently and desperately, praying that for once, everything would work out like in a fairytale.
Timothy seemed to breathe a little easier, but he didn’t otherwise react. He was still unconscious—and the darkness on his chest seemed to spread out further with little tendrils of blackness.
I’m his mate—but we’re not mated yet. Maybe that’s why I can’t help him.
Why hadn’t they done the mating right there on the sandbank?
Tears appeared in her eyes when she thought of it. That moment had been so perfect. Just Timothy, her, and the ocean. She’d thought she’d have that kind of happiness until the end of her life.
And now Timothy might die right here in her arms, because she wasn’t as strong as him, and because she didn’t know enough about shifters and their powers to save him...
Tears kept running down her face as she looked at him, praying for a miracle.
One of her tears dripped down—and it splashed right onto his chest, at the center of the spreading darkness.
For a moment, the weird, dark tendrils seemed to flinch back. She held her breath.
Then the blackness began to spread out once more, but Liana no longer paid it any attention.
She’d realized at last what she had to do.
He’s my ocean dragon. The master of water!
Hastily, Liana stripped out of her clothes. There was a stream running through the valley, right along where the meadow ended and the forest began.
She pulled off Timothy’s clothes as well, ignoring her own terror when he groaned every time his wounds were jarred.