Page 276 of Swords of Soul and Shadow
His aim struck true, the blue fire nailing the man in his chest, but the man’s pistol still fired. The twin echoing cracks were buried by the chaos at hand, but in Jove’s mind, the second one deafened him.
His heart didn’t beat.
His lungs didn’t fill with air.
“Clara!” He tried to scream her name. Instead, her name wheezed out on the winds of death.
The Cerl slumped forward, the impact of Jove’s shot dropping him like a stone. Jove fell to his knees, clawing his way to the last place he’d seen his wife and son. He was too slow, too clumsy, his legs refused to work properly. His fingers clawed at the cobblestones, his sword and pistol forgotten. Nails ripped from their beds as he urged himself to move faster.
He shoved the Cerl soldier’s dead weight off her. Blood leaked from her side.
“No nono!” Jove pleaded, cupping his hands over the wound. Clara’s glassy eyes wandered over him, her lips weakly moving in a silent prayer.
His hands left bloody fingerprints on her face, her chest, on Samuel’s blanket. His son. Screaming. Jove checked him for any injury. Nothing he could see. Clara had shielded him.
“Is he—” she whimpered.
“He’s all right.” Jove’s hands shook too hard to take his son out of the sling. He didn’t know what to do. He couldn’t just sit there and watch her die. All of his training had utterly fled his mind. If he didn’t do something, she would bleed out. He didn’t know how deep the wound went. All he could see was blood.
“Help me, please!” Jove shouted into the void, unsure of just who would answer. “Help me!”
Clara shook her head, and Jove picked her and Samuel up, holding them both to this chest. He kissed her temple, tears streaming down both their faces. “Hang on. Just hang on.”
He could not live without her. He had to find help.
A wink of blue caught his attention—the Cerl’s pistol a few feet away, halfway tucked under his cooling body.
If Clara died, would he use it on himself?
His heart pounded in his chest. He could. He would be with her in whatever life awaited beyond this one. He’d nearly lost her to his own stupidity before the Kyvena attack, and he’d barely survived then.
He’d lost Ana, Zeke, and his father. He might’ve lost Kase. He could not lose his wife.
Samuel’s cries reached a fever pitch, breaking Jove out of his thoughts. Clara’s tears fell silently down her face, but she couldn’t comfort their son. “Take him. Help him, please.”
“Clara—”
“He needs his father.”
“He needsyou!” Jove’s voice cracked, raw and pleading. “Ineed you!”
“Jove, please.” Her voice broke. “Take him.”
Jove set her down softly, trying not to jostle her wound. He unwound his son from the wrap, cradling him close to his chest.
The baby’s mouth gaped open, his eyes scrunched in terror or displeasure or hunger. Blood not his own smeared his cheek.Jove’s tears washed it away as he pressed a kiss to his head. “Shh, shh. I’ve got you. It’ll be okay. ”
It wouldn’t, but Jove didn’t know what else to say.
Clara fell back into her silent prayers, and Jove pressed Samuel’s wrap to her wound, trying in vain to stop the flow.
“Master Jove!” a voice said above him. “Move aside.”
He shook his head. He would not leave her.
“Anoheme ana hoiseh li Valihanora!” the voice shouted above him. Golden dust ignited around him. “Jir dremu hiassa li grer mara.”
Everything burned. His ears ceased working. He couldn’t see.
