Page 141 of Once the Skies Fade

His hand came down hard on my wrist, his fingers tightening around it. He started to force my arm away from the table, but Ursula stepped forward and laid a gentle hand on his shoulder.

“Graham has made his choice, Warren. Certainly there’s no harm in letting this general take the others over? If Graham fails, we will want the antidote close by, no?”

Warren glowered at me for a long breath before finally pushing out a sigh and muttering, “Fine.” He didn’t release me until Ursula pulled away, but she dropped her hand too low, conveniently crashing into the glasses, spilling them.

“Fuck!” I growled, shoving Warren back. He stumbled into Ursula, who looked about ready to come at me herself, but she decided against it. The other four advisors all sat at their end of the table, hands covering their mouths, eyes wide, but they did nothing to actually step in.

“You are all worthless,” I said, and turned away from them.

Graham set the glass he’d tried upside down on the table. His head dropped to his chin, and he crumpled into Isa’s chair.A furious scream burst from him, and he thrust both his hands angrily out in front of him, sending Calla’s cup of poisoned wine flying, splashing across the table.

The worthless prick. Was he just going to give up? Wait for one of these other fuckers to save her? The only one here aside from me who cared about Calla was Isa. I snapped my eyes up to her, where Korben still held her tightly.

“Let her go. It’s over!” I said, but Korben didn’t until he shifted his gaze to the Assembly, who presumably nodded.

As soon as he released her, she twisted around, and before he could react, she reached up, grabbed him by his hair, and pulled his face down into her raised knee. His pitiful groan filled the room, and Isa shoved him down into the corner before turning back to me.

“Where’s the antidote?” I asked her. Isa scanned the table, and then all color drained from her face.

“Gone,” she mumbled. That couldn’t be right.

“What do you mean gone?” I asked, grabbing her arms and forcing her to look at me.

“I mean”—she threw a hand out toward the table—“there’s none left. It’s all spilled.”

“You didn’t have any extra on hand?” I couldn’t believe this. Who the fuck planned this trial?

“All the extra was supposed to be in Calla’s water glass, which isn’t here.”

I could face the Assembly, demand to know where the rest of it was, but we didn’t have time. They wouldn’t give me any useful information anyway.

Slowly, I turned to Calla, lowering myself to kneel beside her and lifted my hand to her face. I brushed my thumb over her cheek, desperate fear causing it to shake. My chest burned, a dark fire consuming me, searing my heart, eating away at any hint of hope I had left.

I stilled.

Burning. Searing.

The cure.

The cure had burned away the poison when I drank it.

No.

This was insane.

Then again, poisoning myself to find the antidote had also been insane, and it had worked.

Maybe this would too.

Lifting myself up off the floor, I cradled Calla’s face in my hands and brought my lips to hers, hoping against all fucking hope that some of the antidote lingered to save her…and that she wouldn’t kill me for this.

Chapter 61

Calla

One moment there was dark emptiness, a hollow peace. The next moment my world was on fire. Brilliant white light chased away the darkness. A breath so pure, so fresh rushed into my lungs, so different from anything I’d ever experienced I wondered if I had ever truly been living before now.

Had someone done it?

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