Chapter 36

Oriel slept all morning again, worrying Cosette. He seemed to be sleeping longer and longer each day, but at the very least it helped to keep his pain at bay. Zachariah planned to stop by in the late afternoon, but somehow, it didn’t seem soon enough. It was all she could do to keep her mind busy until then.

She took a pot of boiling water from one of the servants and made her way up to their bedchamber. Steaming hot rags to cover his forehead seemed to help keep him warm. She would also help him sit by the fire downstairs, and perhaps she would play him some music—

She froze mid-step as she took one look at Oriel, and as if she lost control of her arms, she dropped the pot of boiling water in her panic, ignoring the way it seared her skin as it splashed against her legs.

Rushing to the bedside, she placed her hand against his cold forehead. She leaned in close and felt no breath escaping his mouth. His chest did not rise and fall as it should.

Her hands flew to her mouth, and she started to weep. This wasn’t supposed to happen yet. They were supposed to have at least another day.

“Papa!” she shrieked. Oriel was not breathing. He was not breathing. “Papa!”

Her father burst into the room, glancing from her to Oriel. He placed a hand on top of her head, his gaze intense as he stared at Oriel. She continued to weep, panic-stricken and no longer in control of her emotions. She ran a hand down her face. She clutched her fists to her mouth. She paced about the room. Oriel couldn’t be dead. He couldn’t.

Unlike her, her father maintained a level head. She watched as he assessed Oriel’s condition, placed a hand against his chest, and at last, opened his mouth. His blood fever had spread.

“Don’t fret, dear daughter,” he finally said. “Vampires can continue to live without breathing. He is not gone from us yet. Let’s get him to the infirmary to see if anything can be done to stretch out his time.”

When he picked up Oriel’s limp form and cradled him in his arms, she nodded numbly and clutched onto her father’s shirt. Moments later, they stood in the Ichor Knell infirmary. She kept her gaze on Oriel’s pale face. He looked so fragile. So frail.

Doctor Enache noticed them, pushed aside his work, and rushed forward. His expression turned grave.

“Zachariah has gone with Nicolae to fetch an elf to stretch out his time. Are they too late?”

“Not yet,” her father answered. “Where can I lay him?”

“In here.”

Doctor Enache showed them to a room on the farthest side of the infirmary, and Cosette immediately recognized it for what it was—the room Zachariah had readied for Oriel’s surgery should Adam return with bloodbane.

Not a moment passed after her father laid Oriel down when Zachariah rushed in with an elf at his heels. Cosette’s eyes widened as she gazed at the female. Her long, pointed ears poked out conspicuously from her blonde hair. She was enormously tall, at least for a female. And she was beautiful. Pale skin. Silver eyes, as was common among the elves. And delicate features.

“You are right to have fetched me, Nicolae,” the elf said. She ran her finger from the middle of Oriel’s forehead, over his lips, down his neck and chest, and then to his belly. “He has at most an hour. I can stretch it to three.”

“Only three, Talindra?” Nicolae asked.

“Yes,” Talindra answered. “He is on the very edge of this life. But I ask you one more time. Do you really want me to do this? At least in death, he will feel no pain.”

The elf turned to Cosette, and everyone in the room held their breath. She swallowed hard as she gazed down at Oriel’s sleeping face. In sleep, he would feel no pain. And in death, he would be free of it. How could she be so selfish?

But she had a feeling she just couldn’t explain. It wasn’t his time to go.

She nodded. “Three more hours is enough. I know it.”

Both Nicolae and Talindra exchanged a look before the woman reached out and drew a circle on Oriel’s chest with her finger. A silver light radiated from her fingertip, and a shape began to form. The pattern looked so detailed, so intricate, that Cosette struggled to follow it with her eyes. But when Talindra finished, the silver light sparkled like moonlight on a rippling lake surface before sinking inside of Oriel.

His chest began moving up and down again, and she released a sob of relief. He still lived, but only just barely.

Hurry, Adam. Please.

“Thank you,” she whispered, but then she bit her lip as uncertainty overcame her. “Who are you to Oriel?”

Talindra and Nicolae shared a look before they both chuckled. Nicolae answered.

“The origins of where I found my mate are not a secret, but I try not to make it common knowledge. My mate, Madeleine, was an elf. Society would not allow us to be together when she was an elf and I a vampire, so I bit her. Talindra is my sister-in-law. But she is much younger than me.”

Cosette nodded, suddenly feeling foolish for asking the question. The Covaci coven was part elf. She should have made the connection sooner.

Zachariah placed his hand on Cosette’s shoulder, but the gesture only brought the faintest sliver of comfort. “Adam will come. I’m sure of it.”