It’s too cold.
Too cold.
My head shook of its own volition, my throat burning.
“Ara, hey. Stay with me.” My hands trembled as I lowered us to the ground, cradling her in my lap, my vision blurring. “Please, Ara. Please.”
Please.
Please.
Her face was pale. Her lips weren’t rosy like they always were.
She was too calm.
I can’t breathe.My chest was too heavy. Rising and falling too quickly.
“You’ll be okay. Iaso will save you. Do not leave me just yet, Ara. Do not—” My chest burned.I can’t breathe.“I need-I need—”
I needed her like I needed oxygen and now I was losing both.
“Breathe,” she commanded, her voice strained. “I’m fine, Rogue. It’s alright,” she whispered, repeating my own words back to me. Her hand fell from my cheek and a choked sob broke from my lips.
“No,” I said, lifting her hand back to my cheek, holding it there. “No, you cannot leave me here. Ara, please. I-I—”
Her eyes slid closed and she fell limp in my hold.
A guttural roar tore from my throat and I felt it.
Her bond to me. Drifting away.
Her body was here, but she, her soul, was not. It felt as though she was floating into an unreachable void, somewhere I could not protect her. Could not save her. Teetering on the edge of eternity.
Choking on a scream, I scooped up her lifeless body and ran to Iaso’s chambers. I kicked her door open, shattering the door handle, and she jumped as I entered.
“What happened?” She rushed to me, guiding us to her surgery table.
“I-I don’t know. I didn’t get here fast enough,” I said, my breath hitching. As I laid her on the bed, Iaso touched her throat with two fingers.
“She has a pulse.”
Relief like I have never felt washed over me, returning my breath, and I gasped painfully. She pulled out a needle, pricked Ara’s arm, and brought the drop of blood to her mouth, licking it off.
“Oh, Rogue. She… There’s poison.”
The brief respite I had been granted was ripped from beneath my feet. My head spun and I gripped the edge of the table, begging for something to steady.
“What do we do?”
“I know the remedy, but it will take time and she has already lost so much blood…” She glanced down at Ara’s face, smoothing back her sweat-slicked hair. My grip tightened on the table, turning my knuckles white. “I don’t think—”
“Take mine.”
“Rogue—”
“Take it. Give her my blood. Save her, Iaso,” I ordered, my face tight. “Please.”
She stared at me and nodded, running behind the wall of her surgery. I leaned over Ara and placed my palm on her cheek.