Page 80 of Oleander
“Holy shit,” Flame murmurs, but it doesn’t surprise me. I already knew it was bad.
An ice-cold chill takes over my body, and violent tremors tug on my wounds, making my teeth chatter. Ander grabs my hand and squeezes tightly, attempting to reassure me.
I’m drifting away. I can feel it.
“Don’t let go,” I plead, my words a breathless whimper.
“Never.Stay with me, baby.”
My gaze homes in on Oleander, and I smile at his handsome face, no matter how worried his features are. If I’m about to die, at least I can be with the one person I care about most in all of the worlds.
“I love you,” I whisper before my eyes roll into the back of my head and I’m thrown into a bottomless pit of darkness.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
OLEANDER
“Ilove you.”
I’m so stunned by his words and what’s happening that it takes me a second to react. This feels like a dream and a nightmare, all wrapped into one.
He loves me?
Shock hits me hard, and Flame moves before I can, rolling Skyler to his side as he begins to convulse violently. Foam bubbles out of his mouth, and absolute terror seizes my heart, squeezing ruthlessly.
Skyler waspoisoned. By a hellhound’s claws. The toxins are so potent, soevil, that a simple scratch can kill you. Only the most experienced and the most powerful Earth Fae healers can save someone afflicted by a hellhound bite or scratch. My mother is one of them. She could save him, but she just left, and he won’t make it to the castle in time. It’s too far.
I have to try. I have to.
“Use your power to save him, Ander!” Flame shouts at me, coming to the same conclusion I have—I’m the only one who can. He’s on the bed, carefully bracing the boy who just told me he loves me. The boy who’sdying. “Do you love him?” Flame growls at me.
I nod, unable to form words. My pulse pounds unevenly, the emotions threatening to spill out like a tsunami wrecking everything in its way.
“Then take the poison and take his pain.Now!What are you waiting for, Ander?!”
I close my eyes and summon my magic, hovering my palms above his skin as I attempt to absorb the evil toxins from his wound.
Nothing happens.
“I can’t! It’s not working,” I cry, nearly pulling my hair out of my head in distress.
“You can! And you have to, or he’sdead! Do it now, Ander!” Flame’s right. I have to keep trying no matter what. “Change his fate, brother.Now!”
A flashback to the treehouse with River slams into me. The painful memories press down on my back like a heavy burden only I can carry. It suddenly feels as if all of the oxygen is being sucked from the room. I need to redeem myself here and save someone with my power.Someone I love.I never got a chance to say it back, and Ihaveto tell him.
I love him. With everything that I am, I love him.
Our love is wholesome, wild, and pure, like I’m wrapped in a warm blanket and a tight embrace. Peaceful energy flows through me, settling the building panic.
I love him, and he loves me. I can do this. I can save Skyler.
I repeat the words like a mantra in my head and press my hands to his fevered skin. I call a thread of magic slowly, infusing it with the love that I hold so deeply for him. Instead of allowing my poison to manifest, I concentrate as hard as I can andpull. I think about how he saved me and how it’s my turn to return the favor. I talk to the poison the way I talk to the plants and slowly let more magic out, pulling harder as the boiling, rancid, dark magic starts to seep into me.
I’m sweating, the agony intense, but I don’t let it go. I pull every drop of the poison into me, even though I can see the pallor of my hands against his red, infected skin. It’s making me sick, on top of the magic inside of me slowly draining away. But it doesn’t matter. I’d drain every drop of that power if it meant saving Skyler’s life.
“Pull harder!” Flame shouts at me, Gaia whimpering as Nerine holds her close.
“Please save him, Oleander,please!” Gaia shouts before Nerine shushes her.
