Page 11 of The Emerald Dragon Prince
“I need to get you away from here,” I said, looking down at my mate again. “I cannot figure this out in the middle of a battlefield.”
I couldn’t very well create a door where I was, with soldiers scrambling and fighting all around me either. Someone would stumble through the door before it closed, which could cause any number of problems.
The only thing I could do was to scoop my groaning, fading omega into my arms and stand. I searched for the closest clear area, then rushed as fast as I dared with Rumi in my arms, crying in pain that I could feel as though it were my own, toward it.
“Hang on, my love,” I said as I created a doorway once we were in the clear. “I will not let you die. You are mine, my heart and my soul. I will find a way to heal you, and we will live the long and happy lives we are meant to live.”
I prayed with everything I had that that was true, then stepped through the doorway into the magical world.
Chapter
Three
Emmerich
“Emmerich,” Rumi panted as I carried him through the doorway and straight into my bedchamber in the dragon castle near the dancing pavilion. His voice was weak and wispy, and when his eyes fluttered open, I could tell he didn’t see me.
“I’ve got you, my love,” I said as comfortingly as I could, carrying him to my bed.
I was afraid to put him down, afraid to let him go in case holding him was the only thing keeping him tethered to this life. Everything I could feel from him through our bond was weak and faded, like a reflection of what my mate once was and should have been.
Rumi was dying from his wounds, and it felt like there was nothing I could do about it.
“Hang on,” I told him, putting my fears aside to settle him on the soft, green coverlet.
It took another few seconds of praying before I felt safe to let him go. As I pulled my arms out from under him and stood looking down at him, my throat closed up. My mate looked so small and helpless. His tunic was completely wet with dark, red blood. He’d grown too weak even to moan or clutch his belly, like I knew he wanted to so he could protect our egg.
Our egg! I caught my breath, hunching down so I could place my hands over his belly. The sword strike had crossed right over his womb, but as far as I could tell, the paused egg hadn’t been touched or hurt at all. I could feel it vaguely through what remained of my and Rumi’s bond. Embryonic as it was, I sensed that the egg was aware that its papa was in distress.
“Hang on,” I repeated, speaking as much to our child as my mate. “I can save you. Iwillsave you.”
I had no idea how I was going to do it.
Even though I was exhausted, I tried again, closing my eyes, placing my hands over the sword wound marring my beloved’s body, and channeling every last bit of magic I had into healing the wound. I managed to stop the flow of blood, but for some reason, Rumi’s flesh was stubborn. It refused to knit back together or close up and regenerate itself. I chased away any element that would cause infection, but Rumi’s body was irreparable.
I huffed out a breath as I gave up my efforts and slumped over Rumi’s form. He’d either passed out or fallen asleep with both of our efforts to keep him alive. I covered him with my body, pressing my chest into him in a last, vain hope that if his heart could hear my heart, all would be well.
It was no use. As soon as I stopped using magic, blood began to flow once more. I couldonly stop it with a concentrated effort, and I didn’t have the strength to spend every waking moment channeling magic into my mate.
“You bastard!” I growled, sending the curse to the nameless, faceless sorcerer who I knew was responsible for the wound.
The traitor in Osric’s camp was the reason someone as harmless as Nikkos had taken up a sword, likely with an enchanted or poisoned blade, and attacked my omega. The sorcerer had turned friends against friends and set Osric’s army against itself. For all I knew they would attack each other until every last one of the loyal men and women who had pledged themselves to defeat the evil of King Freslik was dead.
The hopelessness was too much. Big and strong as I was, I burst into weeping, hugging my dying mate’s body tightly.
“My son, what is the matter?” Mother’s calm, gentle voice spoke behind me a moment later.
She rested a hand on my shoulder, but I had already gasped and jerked around to face her.
“Mother!” I said, hope renewing within me. “Mother, please. Save him. Save my omega. I’m not strong enough to fight whatever is killing him, but I know you are.”
“Your faith in me is humbling, my darling,” Mother said, her smile warm and her eyes sad.
I stood and turned to face her. Mother always seemed small unless you were looking at her directly. As I knelt, she appeared tiny, but when I rose to my feet, I was still looking up into her kind eye and her gentle face.
“You can do it,” I said. “You are everything. You are all love and all power. You can accomplish all the things I cannot do.”
Mother laughed modestly. I wanted to be annoyed thatshe could appear so calm and unflappable when the love of my life lay dying on the bed beside us, but that was merely Mother’s way.
