Song of Blood and Reign

Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Jai tried to move, but his focus was still on the space where Lyv and Mik disappeared. 

She was gone.

Again. 

And the feeling in his chest was ripping him apart just as it had when she first went under.  He wanted to cry out her name, yank her back by their bond...but it was stretched so thin he could barely feel it.  Just a whispering echo, fading. 

She's still me. 

Mother above, the dark Lyv he'd seen was not what his Lyv would become.  She wasn't a glimpse into the future, a vision come to life to show him what would happen.  She was merely a disease, a wound left to fester.  She wouldn't take over completely if he had anything to do with it. 

...until I get better acquainted with the darkness without having it overtake me completely...I can't go with you yet.  So, let me go.

Let me go.

Let her go.  He was tired of letting her go.

No more.  But first...

Jai shook his head, gathering his thoughts back to what was happening then.  Faces were peering at him through the ward he still had up, two of which he picked out of the crowd in an instant.  The mated pair Jai's eyes landed on first was the one he knew would be there, just as angry as he knew they'd be. 

"We can't leave you alone for one minute without something happening!" Thia yelled as soon as Jai's ward dropped.  Her eyes were bright with fury as she stalked toward him, still staring in the place where Lyv and Mik disappeared, having only caught a glimpse of them. 

Gideon was just as pissed, if not more.  "You know, I don't think we're every going to leave your side now." 

Thia continued on.  "No more splitting up on these trips or...Allel!"

Completely forgetting their fury at him, Gideon and Thia ran as fast as they could to where Allel collapsed against the stone pavement, her breathing labored and eyes drifting closed.  Jai was there a moment later, helping Gideon carefully turn Allel onto her back. 

The movement allowed them to see just what Mik had done to her, other than the superficial wounds along her arms and legs.  Jai's stomach rolled at the sight of her face.  Four jagged lines slashed across the right side, cutting across her eye and barely missing the spelled tattoo that gave her shifter powers.  It stretched the length of her face from hairline to jaw like Mik had slashed her with claws of his own.  He used his sword, too, cutting it across her stomach and soaking the ground beneath her with blood.  It was the first thing Jai's hands went to as he dropped to her side and Gideon the other, pushing up her tunic to see the damage inflicted.   

"Allel?" Thia panicked, moving her head into her lap.  She brushed back the hair that stuck to her face, trailing blood along her skin.  "Can you hear me?  Stay with us, all right?  We've got you."

Allel groaned as her head fell to the side, drifting into unconsciousness. 

Jai's eyes went from her stomach to her face and back again.  "My healing magic's nothing compared to Lyv's," he worried, clenching and unclenching his fists.  "But I've got to try something."

"You saved Bence years ago, so you can do the same for Allel," Gideon reassured him.  "And I'll help.  But again...we've got nothing on Lyv.  The scars she'll probably have no matter what, especially being human and immortal and not..."

She would have been able to heal Allel within a few moments, but it was going to take him longer and require more concentration.  This was hard, especially when the onlookers around them were yelling for guardsmen, a healer, anyone to help.  Jai knew they didn't have time to wait, though.  He had to do something now.