Page 118 of The Spark that Ignites
Oh, gods. Hehadpushed her from the bolt's path. Despite their complete bargain, he saved her. Deemed her life worth saving. He didn’t know what a monstrous wretch she was. Didn’tknow she plotted to swindle him all this time. Regret cleaved her in two, leaving her whole with remorse.
“Vesper?” she croaked, her soul pressing against her flesh, trying to escape this reality. Somewhere it didn’t hurt. Anywhere but here.
He didn’t answer.
The seconds it took to reach him were an excruciating eternity. Time slowed. Stopped. Became a living nightmare with weighted molasses coated limbs. She crawled to him, the biting pain in her thigh forgotten.
Her shaking hands hovered over his wounds.
She needed to do something.Anything.
Cradling his head in her lap, his blood slathered her hands and gathered between her fingers. Vesper’s pleading eyes bulged as he gasped for air, his wound gaping like a beached fish’s gills.
A violent tremor shook Emmery’s body as her mind raced. She couldn’t heal around the bolt, but the blood pumping from his neck was too fast. Too much. Throat first, then chest. She repeated it in her mind.
“Em—” he choked, blood bubbling from his mouth.
He coughed. More spurted.
“Don’t speak. It’s ... alright. Y-you’re alright.” The words spilled out mechanically, as if from someone else’s lips. Because she didn’t believe them for a second. Her hands replaced his and clamped to staunch the flow—to hold that precious lifeblood inside him, but it leaked through her fingers, warm, slick, metallic—
Her stomach roiled as Callias’s bloodless face haunted her mind. How she had almost failed. But she wouldn’t, couldn’t—not Vesper.
Anyone but him. Please, ohplease, anyone but him.
She blinked rapidly, her eyes suddenly wet.
“Em.” Her name wheezed out of him. “It’s ... okay.Leave...” He gasped. “Iz... Izzy—back.”
“No ... you'll do it. You’ll bring her back. You’ll—you’ll be okay.” A tear fell on his cheek. Her tear. “I’ll fix this. I’ll—I’ll fix you ... I promise. I’ll ... fix you.”
Squeezing her eyes shut, she willed every shred of healing into him. The silver threads brought unfathomable pain. Fire, sparks, stars exploding in the cosmos couldn’t compare. It pierced her chest, but her heart—it fought. Her throat yawned open, and she couldn’t breathe, suffocating along with him. A strangled cry ripped free, and she clenched her teeth around it. Bit down until it hurt. Until she tasted her own blood.
Vesper’s eyelids fluttered shut, his pale lips parting as she took his pain. Held it. She would gladly do it. Keep it within herself for eternity.
Beneath her fingers the flesh mended, but slowly. Too slowly. His blood pooled around them in a moat of crimson, and she was a crumbling island. Her silver threads wavered, and she heaved a breath, willing them to speed. That flapping wound in his throat had pulled together but the bolt skewering his chest was a spile and his body nearly sapped dry.
Clenching her teeth, Emmery wrenched it from his chest. Agony speared her, echoing in her body, but that meant he didn’t feel it.Good.
Her vision blurred and her head grew impossibly heavy. She swayed but managed to clamp her hand over the spraying blood, her threads dividing between the two wounds.
Pale as parchment, Vesper expelled a breath, and his head lolled.
And it was the cold sweat pricking her skin and ebbing pain that sang the vile tune of Death’s embrace. It floated through her, taunting finality. Emmery growled as she threw the last of her magic into him.
She didn’t need it. She didn’twantit.
He could have it all if it meant he would stay.
Stay.Stay.Stay. Her heart chanted the words.Please, please,oh gods,please.Don’t ... take him from me, her heart pleaded.Please don’t take him from me.
Her vestige flickered, the golden glow dimming around her hands. Collapse beckoned and her threads failed, dissipating into the damp crypt air. Emmery swiped at her nose to find it gushing blood.
Vesper’s heart stuttered. His chest spasmed as her threads failed.
Fuck.
She couldn’t do it. It wasn’t enough.
