Page 22 of Blood Tribute

“No.” She sat up, her hands hovering uselessly over the dagger. “What have I done?”

“Listen to me. You can still escape Virtus. I’ll tell you how to find the tower. Make a libation…ask for Sanctuary…the magic will open to you.”

“I’m not leaving you! Help me understand what you need.” She drew a deep breath, gathering her calm. “If I remove the dagger, you’ll bleed. Which is worse—Arceo’s magic, or the blood loss?”

“Save yourself. That’s enough for me.”

“No. There must be a way to heal you. If you drink pure human blood, will it purge Arceo’s magic from you?”

Dav moved very carefully, covering her hand with his. “That didn’t save Rahim. Not even our Queen’s magic could heal him.”

“Even if all my blood can give you is comfort, I will shed it for you.”

She scrambled off the bed and went to the wall, where she pressed the stone that opened a hidden niche. She rifled through the secrets she kept from Sir Virtus and seized the two vials she had stolen from the shrine chamber.

The white bottle of poison was chained to the gold bottle that held the antidote, in case a knight needed to revive a Hesperine prisoner. Nora uncapped the cure and tossed back its contents. She counted to fourteen, time slipping through her fingers while she waited for the potion to work.

When warmth shot through her body, she raced back to Dav’s side. She tore out of her festival gown and climbed onto the bed. “I’ll remove the dagger now, and then I want you to drink from me.”

“Please, Nora. Go.”

“I will not abandon you,” she swore. “Just like you and Rahim never gave up on me.”

Dav swallowed. “If your blood…is the last thing I taste…then I’ll keep fighting, too.”

“On the count of three. One.” She took hold of the dagger. “Two.” She held her gown ready to staunch the blood. “Three.”

She pulled the blade out, his shout of pain ringing in her ears. Hurling the dagger away, she pressed her gown to the wound. His blood soaked the gold and white fabric.

She pressed her throat to his mouth. “Drink!”

His fangs shot out, and he sank them into her neck with feral force. She pressed her fist to his wound, breathing hard as he tore her blood out of her. He groaned against her skin, and she felt his magic reaching for her mind again.

“Yes,” she said. “I’m here. You’re not alone.”

His power wove into her, hers into him. In that moment, she felt closer to him than she ever had to a living soul. And she was losing him.

His blood soaked through the gown onto her hand. Her tears splashed onto his chest. She would do anything to go back and change even one of her choices.

She held his head, fearing the moment when his bite would weaken and he would slip away.

She would hold on to him for as long as she could.

SIX

Unholy Confessions

I

Suddenly Nora felt Dav’s fingersclamp around the back of her neck. With his other hand, he shoved the gown away and flattened her bloody palm over his heart.

The wound had closed. She didn’t understand why or how. She only knew that her blood was healing him.

“Yes,” she cried, “take everything you need.”

In a burst of speed, he flipped her onto her back, and his weight came down upon her. She clutched him between her thighs and ran her hand over his body, feeling the new life in him. Her own body pounded with awareness of everywhere they touched, as if she too were coming back to life.

He slid her hand down the damp planes of his stomach to the front of his trousers. She felt the silk fabric and the forbidden steel beneath. Together, they rid him of the last barrier of clothing between them. Admonitions from the Order’s matrons fled from her mind. Her thoughts filled with words she was not supposed to know and acts she was not supposed to imagine.

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