Page 109 of Knight's End
I glanced over at Posey, who was watching this whole scene stoically.
“Maybe she stabbed Mayi’s heart?” I asked, hopefully, wishfully thinking that somehow, magically, maybe all this blood belonged to the sea witch.
Posey shook her head.
Time slowed as I stared down at Avia. My soul dissolved into a fine mist; it existed, but barely. It hung in the air, a collection of tiny tears just waiting for the sunlight to pierce it, destroy it. How could a world exist where Avia’s pure soul was tied to someone so evil? How could the gods allow her to fall? My heart throbbed painfully as she gasped in pain.
She weakly gripped my hand. Her own felt clammy. “It’s okay, Bloss.”
“No, it’s not.”
“You said her heart needs my blood, right? When I’m gone, so is she.”
No. No. No, no, no.
Even on the brink of death, she shone like a lighthouse. She saw the sarding good in everything.
I clenched my jaw.
“It’s a good ending for me,” she whispered. “I’m the peacekeeper in our family, remember?”
Avia had always been the water that doused the flames between mother and myself.
“I feel dizzy. Is that a new necklace? It’s horrible,” Avia tried to keep the tone light. Conversational. Even as her eyelids fluttered closed.
Shite. I felt like collapsing, but I didn’t want to let her go.
“Let me hold her a bit,” Ryan said softly. “You can hug her while I keep her in the water.”
His arms surrounded me and gently lifted Avia. As he pulled her up, her limp hand swiped at my neck, and the leather strap pulled tight against my windpipe.
I yanked the necklace off and stared down at it.
Why the sard had Donaloo given me a love potion? Why not a healing potion? I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to think.
The old bastard was all about love. Thought it was the strongest magic.
Cerena’s wrinkled face popped into my head. She fingered the vial in my memory. “He said it strengthens hearts.”
I uncapped the vial and shoved it toward Avia’s face. “Drink this, now!”
I didn’t give a shite if it strengthened Mayi’s heart too. I just needed it to strengthen Avia’s heart long enough for Connor—
Avia gulped down the purple vial.
My eyes scanned her face, her body. My heart pounded as I searched for some sign that the potion had worked.
I wasn’t certain if it was wishful thinking, but her color looked a bit better.
Are they almost here?I asked Quinn.
Quinn didn’t get to respond before Avia shuddered in my arms and Ryan fell down beside me. I blinked, confused.
But then I looked up to see Mayi rising out of the water, another ice spear in her hands.
She launched the spear at my chest.
Quinn and Posey were in front of me in the blink of an eye.
