Chapter 29

“You’re getting worse,” Zachariah said as he inspected Oriel’s mouth with a wooden stick at the back of his throat. “You’ve developed blood fever, which is the second to last stage until…” His throat bobbed up and down as he swallowed. “Until you die.”

Oriel knew his condition was getting worse—his difficulty ascending the stairs to the infirmary had attested to as much. Not only was his energy depleted as it had never been before, but he often woke in the night covered in sweat, his forehead and body raging with a pounding ache. Small bumps coated the inside of his mouth—which was probably what Zachariah had been inspecting just moments before. He was thoroughly dying, and if it hadn’t been for Cosette keeping him motivated to live, he would have wished to die days ago. Forget sunlight fever. This was far, far more miserable.

“Can nothing be done?” he asked as he dabbed perspiration from his hot forehead with a handkerchief.

Tense silence filled the small patient room. Zachariah’s eyebrows furrowed as he shook a vial filled with clear liquid. Finally, he said, “I still don’t know. I’m using all the resources I have available to me, and nothing has turned up. But know this, Oriel. I will not let you die. Not if I can do anything to stop it. You still have approximately a week left, which means there is still time.”

He handed over the vial, and he grimaced as he thoroughly remembered the foul-tasting liquid.

“It will help,” Zachariah insisted.

He grimaced again. “But will it really? The taste lingered in my mouth the entire day last time I took it.”

“Gingaberries do have that effect… But it will ease your pains. Besides, it’s a small price to pay for my many sleepless nights of trying to find a remedy, no?”

Oriel grinned at Zachariah’s jest, glad to witness something other than his latest uncharacteristically serious disposition.

Unfortunately, Zachariah’s seriousness returned moments later after he took the tonic. The foul liquid slid down his throat. A gag wormed its way back up before his aches and pains started to lessen.

He still wasn’t sure if the end justified the means.

“I really think you need to tell Cosette.”

Oriel frowned, the scene playing out in his mind. It would not go well. “What am I supposed to tell her? ‘I’m sorry to say, Cosette dearest, but the vampire slaver who took you prisoner also ripped out my fangs, and now I’m dying, and we likely only have a week left until I’m gone. It was a nice two months of matehood, but now I’ll leave you to fend for yourself in a cruel world.’”

“You would have her fend for herself?”

He sighed. “No. I have set aside funds in the instance of my death. If she doesn’t return to her family after I die, she will have to move from the estate and into a smaller home I own near where her sister, Alina, lives. Cosette would be comfortable there, but I’m terrified she would be lonely.”

Lonely, indeed.

Unless she took the child with her.

He’d wrestled the idea since she had begged him to adopt Leif into their family. There were many reasons why it was a bad idea.

“Please visit your sister,” Zachariah urged. “Laurel is beside herself with worry over you. She cries herself to sleep every night, and I just can’t watch it anymore. It hurts me to see her hurting so much.”

“Laurel is crying every night?” Over me? She had not come to visit him, but rather kept her distance. Could she truly be distraught over the thought of losing him?

“Every night. It’s not only Cosette you need to worry about leaving behind.”

“Where is she?”

Oriel stood but instantly regretted it as the patient room spun around him. Zachariah caught his elbow to prevent him from toppling to the floor. He squeezed his eyes shut until the dizziness passed.

Yes, his condition was certainly getting worse. And as Zachariah had informed him, the last stage of blood fever would spread to his lungs, turning them harder and harder until he was no longer able to breathe—which, unfortunately, had already mildly started to happen. He’d heard it was a painful way to die, but as long as he kept taking Zachariah’s tonic, it should help ease those pains.

“I will send Laurel to you,” Zachariah said. “We need to get you home. Shall I send for Nicolae to take you?”

Oriel shook his head and opened his eyes. Thankfully, the room no longer spun. “No. I really need to speak to her. Take me to her. Please.”

For a moment, Zachariah contemplated his request. Finally, he nodded and took one of his arms and draped it across his shoulders as he helped him walk from the infirmary. The walls moved. The ceiling charged at him at an alarming rate. And as they descended the stairs, he couldn’t tell if his foot would meet solid ground or pass right through.

This was not good. Not good at all. But he had to keep moving.

Of course, Laurel was in the library—where else would she be?—and when she saw him, she gasped and carelessly knocked her book to the floor before shooting from her seat and into his arms. She started sobbing, and he stood near the verge of tears himself. She had always been emotional, but the timing made his heart ache like the melody of a sad folk song.

“Please don’t cry,” he said quietly as he glanced around. Several others lingered in the library, but those within the walls of the spacious room stared at them. He wasn’t ready for the news of his sickness to get out. It wasn’t the way he wanted Cosette to learn of it.

Laurel sniffed loudly into his chest before she nodded and wiped her eyes. “I’m glad you came to visit. I should have come earlier, but I was so afraid of what I might find, and I didn’t want to accept…accept…”

“Everyone dies eventually,” he murmured. “Even vampires.”

His sister took a deep, shuddering breath. “I don’t want to speak of it anymore. Come, let’s sit. We have much to catch up on.”

She took him from Zachariah and remained at his elbow until they found a corner nook beside an unlit fireplace. But he stared at the hearth longingly as a chill raced through his body. Involuntarily, his teeth started to chatter, and he was grateful when Laurel curled up next to him to share some of her body heat.

“Shall I fetch you a blanket?” she whispered, but he shook his head.

“This will pass. It’s just a symptom of the blood fever.”

A pained sound escaped her throat before she jumped up anyway and disappeared for a few moments and returned with a blanket. She proceeded to cuddle up next to him and wrapped the blanket over both of them. It must have been sweltering hot for his sister, but she didn’t seem to mind, as it helped to ward off the chill within himself.

“You keep a blanket in the library?” He raised an eyebrow.

“Don’t look so surprised.” She laughed. “Sometimes I forget the time and find myself too tired to return to bed.”

“And does Zachariah not worry if you don’t return?”

She shook her head. “He knows where to find me. He even brings a couple of pillows at times and joins me.”

He smirked. “It’s not hard to guess. If books are involved, you are sure to be there. Speaking of books…” He reached inside his pocket and pulled out the highly inappropriate novel she had lent him for his union trip with Cosette. Laurel laughed, a mischievous twinkle in her eyes. “Cosette and I were very much enjoying the novel until it came to a very scandalous scene. I can’t help but wonder… Does Zachariah know you read this sort of material?”

She blushed furiously, all traces of amusement gone.

“He doesn’t!” He laughed. “I am going to tell him.”

“Don’t you dare!” she cried as she lunged for the book, but he held it just out of reach.

“I will! Somebody needs to keep your source of entertainment in check.”

Finally, she snatched the book away from him with a huff. “For being as sick as you are, your spirits certainly haven’t been dampened.”

“We’re not talking about it, remember?”

She released a long sigh and nodded. He certainly would miss her should they not find a remedy. For so long, it had always been just Oriel and Laurel. Teammates for life, especially through the hard times like when they lost both of their parents. How would Laurel fare without him? Zachariah would be there for her, of course. For which, he was grateful.

She broke the silence. “Zach told me about your union trip with Cosette… Aside from the horrible parts, did you two at least enjoy yourselves?”

“Yes.” He smiled, and his heart gushed with enormous amounts of love for his beloved mate. “Cosette is wonderful. It took a lot of discipline and stubbornness on my part to break her out of her shell. I’m not sure if her shell is completely gone yet, but we have made so much progress.”

“Oh, Oriel.” She sighed disappointedly. “You have not mated with her?”

He flushed to the roots of his hair. “H-h-how—”

“If she still has this shell you speak of, then it is completely obvious your bond is incomplete. Just get it over with and be done.”

“It’s not that simple.” He frowned, though he didn’t mention he had already tried once before, and it hadn’t gone so well. “At this point, I don’t think I can do that to her. To complete the bond right before I’m to die? It would be cruel.”

“Shouldn’t it be her choice to make?”

His frown deepened as he looked away from his sister. Laurel was very open with him—even when he wished she wouldn’t be—and she had told him all about the intense bond after her mating with Zachariah. Like nothing she had ever experienced, she had said. It hurt so much to imagine Cosette weeping over his death. To never feel quite whole again. It had been difficult enough to watch their own mother die a little more inside each day when their father left. For the same thing to happen to Cosette…

He didn’t think he could forgive himself for it, even in the afterlife.

“Let’s talk about something else,” he said in a pained voice. “Please.”

She bit her lip and nodded. “Tell me about her. About Cosette.”

“Oh, she’s absolutely wonderful. She’s kind and brave and intelligent, and she has this carefree, playful side I just adore. She has a soft spot for children. A very soft spot. In fact, she’s very fond of the boy we brought home. Leif.” He frowned as his thoughts turned back to Cosette’s earlier request.

“What is it?” she asked, looking up at him.

Quietly, as if afraid someone might overhear, he answered, “Cosette wants to adopt the child.”

“What?” She gasped, her head shooting up and nearly bashing into his chin. “How delightful! And you have agreed?”

“I don’t know what to think yet, if I’m honest. I am both afraid and eager. Eager to please her and afraid for so many other reasons. The biggest reason for my hesitation is if I die, she will be left to raise Leif on her own. I am also afraid if I survive, and she has the child, she will have no use for me. Even worse, she might never want a child of her own. Of our own. There are more bad things than good for adopting Leif.”

Laurel hugged him tighter, giving him comfort he didn’t know he needed. It felt good to confide in her. She always had words of wisdom no matter the situation.

“Do you not believe Leif will add to your happiness?” she asked. “You think you will be miserable with an addition to your family?”

“I don’t know,” he answered honestly. “I’m rarely around children.” Still, he smiled as he remembered Leif in the gardens earlier today. “He gave me a big kiss on the cheek this afternoon, and I’ll admit it melted my heart. I can see why Cosette has fallen in love with him.”

“Then take a leap of faith. Tell Cosette of your situation and let her decide for herself. If she is left unaware, how is she to truly understand your reasoning?”

Such words of wisdom—wisdom he apparently didn’t have. He suddenly regretted waiting so long to tell Cosette. He had around a week left to live, and his mate deserved to know.

“Thank you, Laurel,” he whispered. “You’re the best sister.”

“I’m your only sister,” she teased.

“Yes, you are.”