Page 88 of A Legacy of Poison and Lies

He caught her hand, his fingers twining through hers. “I’m fine, Zylah,” he said roughly. “Look at me.”

Her hand slipped from his, her palm falling to his chest as she pushed a kernel of her power into him. She gritted her teeth as he pushed back against it, his magic pressing against hers.

“Don’t fight it,” he said, his tone commanding. “You need it more than me.”

For a moment, Zylah could feel her power twining with his, spiralling back and forth between them.

Her eyes flicked open, and she met his, focused on the way the green deepened at the magic weaving between them, the way his shoulders and chest heaved against the feeling of their power wrapping around each other.

She felt his groan deep within his chest.

“Zylah, stop,” he breathed, his attention flicking down and then back up to her eyes, and all she saw in his was pain.

The last thing she wanted was to hurt him. She pulled back, his magic pouring into her again without resistance, his shoulders sagging a little as if in relief.

“It would save you both, Holt.” Cirelle’s voice carried over the hum of movement.

“Not like this,” Holt barked, a broken edge to his voice halfway between rage and fear. “Not like this,” he said again, his voice softer as another spasm of pain rattled through Zylah’s body.

Cirelle murmured something else, but Zylah couldn’t work out the words. There were hands on her back, carefully cutting open her clothes. “We’re going to get this poison out of you, my child,” the voice from before said over her shoulder. A Fae healer, she presumed. They were going to touch her. They were going to be affected by the vanquicite, and Zylah couldn’t let that happen, wouldn’t. “You can’t,” she rasped, her eyes fluttering shut. “It will kill you.”

The healer clicked her tongue. “I have seen my death, and it is not today.” Warm hands pressed into the bare skin on Zylah’s back. “Don’t let go of her. Keep healing her if you can,” she said to Holt.

Zylah tried to make a noise in protest, but Holt’s hand rested against the side of her face, and he tilted her head up to look at him again. “Don’t think anything you can say would make me stop.”

A retort formed in her thoughts, but it was sluggish, falling away to nothing on her lips. She was vaguely aware of someone gasping, of voices muttering. Rin and Nye, if she had to guess, but she focused on Holt, grinding her teeth against the pain as the healer started to work at the vanquicite, moving as if she were coaxing it from her body.

But it had already reached her heart. Like spears of lightning, the vanquicite seared through her veins with each stuttered heartbeat, the poison leeching into every part of her. No matter how hard Zylah tried, she couldn’t hold on. Could do nothing but let herself slip away into the cocoon of pain that beckoned her.

Zylah.She wasn’t sure if Holt had said her name out loud again, or if in her delirious state, she’d imagined it. But then his eyes narrowed, and he said, “We have a bargain, remember.”

To live. That was the deal she’d made with him. She pressed her hand to his face, her fingers leaving a bloody print as she looked up into his eyes, to the way they frantically searched hers. A frown pulled his eyebrows together, his hair ruffled and wild from his fight.Will it hurt?she’d asked him once before. If she broke the bargain. She couldn’t bear the thought of causing him pain.

“Don’t think like that,” he whispered, his eyes turning glassy, and she realised she must have said it out loud.

There was movement around them, but Zylah’s vision had narrowed to him, to the way his eyes searched hers, to the feeling of his magic flowing through her, chasing the vanquicite in her veins.

Someone swore under their breath. Rin. “This is fucked up. He’s going to—”

“Rin,” Nye warned her cousin.

The healer hummed as she worked,tuggingon the vanquicite, pulling on every spot it had taken root within Zylah, but she let the sight and the feel of Holt anchor her, focused on the warmth of the magic he poured into her instead of the way her body was shutting down. She tried to speak, but she couldn’t summon the words.It was never about living forever, Holt. Just living free,she wanted to tell him, but she couldn’t even manage a whisper.

“Stay with me,” he murmured into her hair as he pulled her close, pressing a kiss against her head and rocking her against him.

Darkness crept in at the corner of Zylah’s vision as the woman muttered words at her back, the pull against the vanquicite throbbing and pulsing and threatening to pull her under completely.

“Am I dead?”she’d asked Pallia.

“Do you want to be?”Pallia had asked in return.

Zylah’s eyes fell shut again, thoughts swirling and looping over each other, memories blurring into one. And though she had accepted that the vanquicite was taking her life, she didn’t want to give it up. Because shedidhave something to lose. Her friends. Her freedom. Holt.

A sharp tug against her spine had her crying out again, but she concentrated on the sound of Holt’s breathing, the thread of magic that weaved between her and him where he was still trying to heal her, to keep her there. How he had anything left to give she didn’t know. She’d seen how much he’d depleted himself against the vampire, watched him collapse after it sank its teeth into his neck. And she’d known then, known that she would do anything,anythingto keep him in this world, no matter the cost.

“I can’t watch this,” Rin said somewhere nearby, her voice wavering.

“Then leave,” Cirelle snapped, “I’m trying to keep them calm, and you’re not helping.”

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