Page 17 of The Fae King's Labyrinth

I tried again but ended up flopping down on the pooka’s back once more.

“Pooka, move.” Despite his calm tone, Azulin’s voice was laced with forceful persuasion. “She is fading faster than I estimated. I need a dry place to work.”

The pooka increased his pace. As he trotted, splashing along, Azulin matched his pace and grabbed my hand. Magic flowedthrough me, forcing my head up and my eyes open. With his free hand, Azulin caught my leg above the enchanted bandage. The warm sensation of his magic prickled along my skin, sinking beneath the surface.

“More vines,” I said. Or at least I attempted to say, but my tongue grew thick and uncooperative. The words came out slurred.

“Stop.” Azulin didn’t wait for the pooka to comply before lifting me off his back. Or perhaps, my head never stopped moving. Either way, a wave of stomach-turning vertigo made me close my eyes as I was swung down to lie flat on my back on the cold, hard ground.

Azulin’s warm hands moved confidently over my injured leg.

“How can I help?” the pooka asked. I sensed him hovering over me.

“Keep her awake, warm, and breathing if you can. She’s going into shock.”

“Wish I still had the cloak,” I tried to say, but my teeth were chattering as shakes gripped my body.

“It wouldn’t do much good,” Azulin replied. “This is going to hurt.”

Pain sliced up my leg from toes to knee. I hissed through my teeth, trying not to cry out. Just as the pain seemed tolerable, it intensified as something was attempting to rip my veins from my body. I screamed.

The pooka protested, the sound very like a horse’s snort, but Azulin’s hands on my skin and the steady pull of his magic never wavered.

“Brace yourself,” Azulin cautioned. “I have to filter the poison out or you will die. The corruption spread farther than I had anticipated, so this is going to hurt.”

His hands tightened around my already aching leg as magic coursed through my veins. The searing pain intensified to thepoint stars erupted across my vision before, abruptly, everything turned black.

∞∞∞

Azulin

Calypso’s body went limp.

With my magic coursing through her, searching out the last remnants of the viper’s poison, I dared not pause to check her vitals. Her blood still circulated, so that meant her heart was yet beating.

“Check her breathing,” I ordered the pooka.

He bent over her in his human form, leaning far too close to her mouth for my comfort. I resisted the urge to snap at him. Mercifully, he didn’t linger.

“She breathes.”

I released some of my pent-up air.

“How much longer?” the pooka asked.

“Almost done.” The corruption hadn’t spread beyond her blood. There was tissue damage where the snake had initially bitten her. I had already done what I could with that. The bandage would draw out any lingering venom in the wound and promote healing, but that would take time. My magic only actively combated the magic-based venom that had been integrating itself into her body. I prayed that I had filtered it out before it caused any permanent damage. Only time would reveal if I had succeeded. Slowly, I began withdrawing my magic.

“Did you get it all?” the pooka demanded the moment I lifted my hands from Calypso’s leg.

Feeling bereft at the lack of connection between our magic, I suppressed the sudden urge to touch her again. Instead, I collapsed next to her on the hard ground. The pooka crouched on Calypso’s other side.

“I eliminated all the poison I could find.” My stomach twisted painfully as my body fought the venom I had filtered out of her body and into mine. “Only time will tell if I found it all.”

The pooka glared at me. “What did you do to her?”

I grimaced at the bitter taste that blossomed on my tongue. I knew from experience the taste wouldn’t dissipate for an hour or so. “I healed her?”

“No, I meant what did you do to her magic? When I met the two of you, you were not connected. Her magic was confused, and yours was chaotic. But now…”

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