Page 94 of An Empress of Air & Chaos

“Emara, get back to the foyer and await him coming back. Go! The wards are holding the demons back for now, but that doesn’t mean they will be strong enough to last the night.”

Understanding she was not getting an answer from the warrior, she pleaded, “Let me help your men. I can help carry the injured back.”

“You are unarmed. It is not safe.”

“It will not be safe in the Tower if the demons break through the wards and your men lie outside dying. I can help them get to a healer quicker,” she argued. “I can help them live, Marcus.”

A screeching noise sounded from behind her and Marcus moved. “Help only a few and then get yourself back to your room and lock the door. We will get the rest.”

He turned and was gone in a flash.

She couldn’t see where Marcus had gone, so she followed the noise of the battle, not knowing where the wards of protection ended and where the fighting began.

“Someone…please,” a broken voice wailed out into the night. Emara knew she was no longer on the garden path as the gravel beneath her shoes crunched when she broke into a sprint. “Help me! Send the Gods for me, please!”

Slowing down, she searched for a body in the fog. A man cried out in front of her, but she could barely see him as she wafted away the thick mist. She found him, walking slowly as she neared his body. His face looked ordinary and a bit pale, but as she got closer she could see how mangled his leg was. And that some of his vital organs were visible. Emara gagged down the bile in her gut as it burned up her throat.

What kind of teeth or talons could shred through human flesh and bone in that way?

He had to be of a magical bloodline because no human would have ever survived what his body had endured. She ripped the hem from her shirt and wrapped it around his leg. She then ripped another piece of material and looked to see if there was any point in trying to control the blood that spilled from his stomach. There was too much. She gulped down the sick from her stomach.

“Please, heal me,” the man cried out in agony.

He thought she was a healer!

Sorrow sank into her heart at the realisation that she would not be able to save this man. She knelt on the ground and tried to tie the shredded material around his wounded leg tighter.

He screamed in pain as Emara spoke, “Did you manage to make it across the wards?” She kept her tone calm and soothing, just like Rhea would. Her hands shook as she tied the material, now turned deep red, around his upper knee. She wasn’t convinced that it would even make a difference to the bleeding, but she tried anyway. “What’s your name?”

A cry broke from his throat, “Eli.”

His whole body started to shake. She knew what was happening. He was losing his life. There was so much blood—too much blood!

Gritting her teeth, she understood that she couldn’t move him. He was going to die here on the ground beside her and she couldn’t do anything to heal him. For the briefest moment, she wished that she were Rhea. She might have even prayed to the Gods for her to become a healer.

Taking his hand in her own, caked in gore and dirt, she spoke to him, “Eli, I am going to hold your hand, is that okay?”

He nodded, the tears rolling down his face. Even when dying, he still tried to withhold fear.

Her heart lodged into her throat. “I am going to count to ten and you’re going to count with me, okay?” He gripped her hand, and she placed her other hand over his.

She closed her eyes and began to count.

“One, two…” She focused on Eli, the man she barely knew, the Hunter who had fought to keep lives safe, as she held his hand and thought of anything but pain and destruction. “Three, four…” He spoke with her through ragged breaths, mirroring her counts. The end was close as the blood from his leg and core now soaked into her clothing, swarming around her knees. “Five…”

“Are you an—an—an angel? Because I don’t—I don’t...” As he stuttered over his words, Emara realised that she didn’t believe in angels anymore. The beings that were supposed to come for you when you were crossing over to the other side, to guide you to that better place. They hadn’t come for her grandmother, and they didn’t seem to be coming for Eli.

His eyes were wide with astonishment as she shook her head. Emara looked down at him with tears in her eyes as he tried to part his lips to say something else. Placing her hand on his face delicately, she brushed the matted hair from his eyes.

“I am not an angel, but the pain will be over soon and they will come for you.” She tried to force a small smile to hide her cruel lie. “I will wait with you until they come for you.”

“Miss, I can’t feel anything. The pain…it’s gone.”

Emara presumed the time for him to leave this world was seconds away if he had gone completely numb. He pulled her hand up to his mouth and kissed the back of it.

“Thank you,” he muttered, blood forming at the side of his mouth, “for finding me.”

“Six, seven…” she breathed. Closing her eyes, she thought of clouds on a summer’s day, drifting through blue skies with ease. “Eight…” The voice of the man was no longer counting with her. She felt the grip of his hand loosen around hers and she knew he was gone. She slid her hand from his as she swallowed the tears that mounted in her eyes. Leaning over, she brushed a hand over his eyes to close them forever. “Nine, ten.”

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