Page 136 of Beast and Remedy
She’s still here, Vi. You still have time.
I squeeze my eyes shut, pushing down the ever-growing visceral fear and clasping on to our plans.
Get to Unterkirch.
Find the seer and get answers.
Shift at will and create a cure. Save Marian.
SaveMarian.
SaveMarian.
Save Marian—
“Where does it hurt?” Marcel asks.
I jolt my eyes open, the brutal rush of my thoughts quieting as my friend’s deep umber irises survey me. A muscle in Marcel’s jaw flexes, his expression blanching the longer I don’t reply.
“My… my head and my back,” I rasp, and he relaxes a fraction. “I’ll be fine. I just need a moment.” I try jostling to a better position—
Christine halts me. “Please don’t move. Let Beau have a look at you.”
“No,” I grit out, refusing to let him waste his power on me. “He needs to help Marian more than me right now.”
Jules pushes against my shoulder, while she and her partners keep me from moving. “You fell off your horse. Your injuries could be just as bad, if not worse.”
“I fell?”
Shit, the effort of moving my gaze stings.
“No,” Marcel says, and my vision spins. “Marian pushed you off. You two were arguing.”
The growing torture makes their faces blur and blob together, and I squint, trying to focus. “She… she hadn’t said a word to me at all today, and when I tried to talk to her, she just…reacted.”
“Oh, Vi.” Christine brushes my red waves back, her touch gentle and cool.
“The virus must be getting worse for her to react with her anger. It’s—awful,” Jules says, lowering her eyes.
“What matters is she seems alright.” Marcel glances toward my sister, Beau, and Leo before turning back. “Beau’s going to check you over now.”
Christine squeezes me before the three of them pull away, and my vision fills with my own personal space—mysunshine.
My lips lift at the fuzzy Beau, and I blink a few times, clarity returning and granting me a blessing to soak up his features.
Yet Beau’s stricken expression darkens my elation.
I can’t have him using all his magic on me. Not if Marian’s infection is worsening. What will this mean for trying to get him to help me with shifting?
Deities, am I going to have to experience that alone now, too? All for the sake of his energy fully engaged in buying Marian more time?
“Rosebud,” he says, voice strained.
I gulp and fight against showing how much pain I’m truly in. “I’m okay.”
He shakes his head. “You are far from alright, my love.”
His hands illuminate, and I move in protest, but the soothing caress of his power eases the pain in my skull. Beau’s magic feels like his fingertips, caressing and trailing down every nerve, every muscle, while treating me.
