Chapter 118: Rhys
“Get Sawyer here now.” I seethed.
Leon didn’t hesitate. His eyes glazed over, and I knew it would be only a matter of minutes till my youngest brother arrived. How could I have done this to Grace? She had been content not having her Lycan. She hadn’t cared that she was blocked from it or bound. She had never known any different. She had finally started to truly trust me, and now I feared she never would again. I mean, why would she? She had already been put through hell, she didn’t need me putting her through more.
The worst part to me was that she had seemed to know that this wasn’t a good idea. I had been so sure that she was strong enough for this now, that I hadn’t even considered her fate being anything but fine!
“Grace,” I pleaded, as I placed my forehead on hers again. “I’m sorry, please come back to me. I need you to fight, my love, please fight and come back to me.”
“She’s not dying,” Sandra rolled her eyes at me. “She’ll be fine. You just have to give her time.”
“She’s in pain!” I argued. “She doesn’t have time.”
“She has until 25 heartbeats a minute,” Sandra shot back. “Now, stop insulting me, it’s getting old. I do not wish to help you stupid werewolves again after this.”
“Does that mean you don’t want to live in the wilds?” I asked coldly.
“I can deal with werewolves,” She clarified, “I just no longer wish to help your kind. This has been excruciating.”
“My fiancé mate is lying here in excruciating pain, and you want to complain?” I felt my temper rise, and there was no Grace right now to calm me down.
“She will be free because of me!” Sandra shot back angrily, slamming down one of the jars she had.
“She has to be freed because of you!” I shouted.
“I will just take my leave then, Mr. Alpha King. I do not care to continue to be insulted. I gave more than you did today. What you paid me, does not even begin to cover what today cost me. So good day, and maybe the Moon goddess will grant you a second chance mate after this one perishes!”
Her words hit me like a truck, so hard that I actually stumbled backward like I had been hit.
“Rhys...” Leon let out a warning.
This witch had disappeared on us before. We searched for her everywhere I could send scouts, but it wasn’t until she came looking for us, that we had found her. Goddess, if she left, Grace wouldn’t survive. And I wouldn’t survive losing Grace. I knew that. And we had people counting on us.
“Wait!” I called after her. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have lost my temper. It’s just hard to see the one you love in such a vulnerable spot.”
“Then you should have thought twice about insulting the woman who was helping her.” Sandra snapped, and then poof, she was gone again.
No, no, no, no! This couldn’t be happening! I ran to the door, but she hadn’t left through it.
“Find that witch!” I bellowed at the guards who were standing just outside.
They frantically scurried off, mindlinking everyone to look for Sandra.
“Hey, what’s going on?” Sawyer asked as he came running up the path with a slight limp.
“Get inside and help,” I begged him.
“Okay...” He frowned but did as I said.
I slammed the door behind us and ran back to Grace’s side. In just those couple of minutes, her breathing had become raspier, and she was taking shorter, shallow breaths.
“What happened?” Sawyer asked, immediately opening his medical bag, and kneeling next to Leon who had guarded Grace in my moment of absence.
“You idiot brother was trying to free Grace’s Lycan and then offended the witch who was helping us.” Leon said through gritted teeth.
It was rare that he ever got mad at me, but I could tell he was fuming. But whatever he was feeling, I knew I was feeling 10 times worse.
Sawyer swung around and stared me, his mouth wide open in shock. “You did what?!”
“Yes, I know. I know. I did bad. And we can talk about it later, but right now, you have to save her!”
“Save her how?!” Sawyer asked in exasperation. “I don’t even know what happened!”
“She was given a dose of wolfsbane, silver and holly.” Leon filled him in all while still glaring at me.
“What? That’s lethal!” Sawyer exclaimed, and my stomach sank.
Damn Grace. How did I get us into this much trouble when all I was trying to do was help?
“There was an antidote, but I think she took it. But her bag spilled everywhere as she disappeared, so maybe it’s still here?” Leon said, but he didn’t sound hopeful.
If she was that mad at me that she left, she would have made sure of all the things she left, the antidote wouldn’t have been one of them.
“Do you remember what it looks like?” Sawyer asked as he listened to Grace’s heart. “Or did she tell you what was in it?”
“Both,” Leon answered, and I couldn’t help but deepen my frown. I knew she had told us what was in the poison, but I didn’t remember anything being said about the antidote. “It was mint extract, gulli seed sap, and maven.”
“Maven?” Sawyer muttered under his breath. “Find that syringe or go find me those things, we don’t have a lot of time.”
Leon immediately began to scour the cabin for the missing antidote, and I pressed a kiss to Grace’s forehead.
“Go help him.” Sawyer demanded angrily as he began to dig through his bag and pulling random things out.
I hadn’t even noticed, but Leon hadn’t been kidding when he said her bag had spilled everywhere. All over the cabin there were shattered jars of unknown substances. Glass was everywhere. Leon had grabbed a trash bag and begun to pick things up one at a time, and I did the same on the other side of the room. God, how could this have gotten so out of hand?
“Fuck!” Sawyer growled from the other side of the room. I have mint extract and gulli seed sap, but I don’t have maven!”
I could hear Grace’s shallow breaths from across the room. We were running out of time.
“Where do I get it?” I asked, abandoning my search for a vial that we probably didn’t even have. “I’ll go, but you have to tell me where.”
“No need!” Leon called out, immediately getting up off the floor and striding over toward Sawyer. “She had maven in her bag.”
He placed the small broken container on the table next to Sawyer. The jar was dented, surprisingly not broken, and the lid was chipped, but all in all it was fine.
“Can you work with this?” I asked, well, more like begged. I wasn’t kidding I couldn’t live without her.
“I don’t know the dosing or the proportions of anything.” Sawyer answered. “But I’ll try my best.”
Sawyer grabbed a book and immediately began doing some calculations as I sat back down next to Grace.
“I’m sorry, Gracie,” I whispered. “I’m so fucking sorry.”
“Okay, I think I got it!” Sawyer exclaimed after what felt like an eternity, and he immediately began filling his syringe with what he needed.
“Wait,” Leon stopped him right when he was about to give it.
Sawyer and I both looked up at him in surprise.
“What?” Sawyer asked, his hand hovering just above Grace’s arm.
“The witch said to wait till her heart dropped to 25 beats per minute.”
“Seriously?” Sawyer growled. “She’s dying! We don’t even know if this will work! And you want me to wait???”
“What’s her heart rate at?” I asked, unable to keep my voice from shaking.
“38.” Sawyer answered tersely.
“Then waiting for it to drop 7 more beats, isn’t going to be long.” Leon argued. “The witch said it had to be 25 beats a minute exactly. She said the timing was important. We don’t even know if it will work, but we have to at least try to follow instructions or else it will have all been for nothing.”
I looked at Leon and nodded slowly. It probably wasn’t going to take long for her heartrate to drop. And we were so close, we might as well try to do it right.”
Sawyer put the shot down and grabbed his stethoscope again with a glare, and mumbled, “If she dies, this is not on me.”
I knew that. I knew that because if she died, it was on me. I would have killed her. I would have killed us all.
“It’s 25 now,” Sawyer said after the longest 5 minutes of my life.
He grabbed the shot and injected it into her arm, and I felt my own pulse rush. This had to work. In my anger, I hadn’t even thought to ask the witch how long it would take her to recover if it worked, I just hoped it wouldn’t be long because now all we could do was wait...
A pop above us all caught our attention, and a little piece of paper fell slowly down toward us. I grabbed the parchment, confused at where it had come from, but I understood as soon as I opened it and read the 5 neatly written words.
Congratulations. You figured it out.