Chapter 30 Fix Her!
Adrian’s POV
I never let her go.
All night I held her against my chest, her head tucked under my chin, my arms locked around her like I could force life back into her with nothing but sheer will.
I watched her face carefully, searching for a twitch, a flutter of lashes, anything. Nothing came. Her breath was so faint that every few minutes I had to press two fingers under her nose just to be sure she was still in the world. Sometimes I counted to ten before I felt the whisper of air. Ten seconds of pure terror that this was it, she was gone, and I’d failed her again.
Dawn bled gray through the windows and the healers crept back in. Same scared faces, same useless mouths.
I didn’t put her down. I sat on the edge of the bed cradling her like she weighed nothing and snarled, “Fix her.”
Marcus opened his mouth, and then closed it.
“There’s nothing to fix, Your Majesty,” he whispered. “No poison, no wound, no—”
I was across the room before he finished the sentence. My hand closed around his throat and I slammed him into the wall so hard the plaster cracked. Instruments clattered off the table.
“You’ve all been at it since yesterday morning and what did you just say to me now? Nothing to fix?” I roared into his face. “She’s dying in my arms and you stand there telling me there’s nothing to fix?”
The other healers shrank back. One dropped to her knees, sobbing. I didn’t care. I threw Marcus aside…he hit the floor gasping…and rounded on the rest.
“Every single one of you swore you were the best. I dragged you from every corner of the realm because you bragged you could heal anything. And now you stand here scratching your asses while my mate slips away?”
I grabbed the nearest one by the front of his robe and shook him hard enough his teeth rattled. “You want to be useful? Start cutting yourselves open. Maybe your blood will wake her since your knowledge is fucking worthless.”
They were crying openly now, trembling so hard I could hear their knees knocking. I let the healer go and he crumpled.
A soft knock. Two young omegas entered with cleaning supplies…warm water, soft towels, lavender soap. I had requested for them to bring supplies to clean Abby while she slept. She was sweating profusely in the early hours of this morning.
The second the first girl stepped toward the bed, bucket sloshing, my vision went red.
No one touches her. Not while she’s like this. Not while I can’t trust a single soul in this palace.
I moved without thinking. Claws out, I had her by the throat against the wall before she could scream. She dropped the bucket with a scream, water splashing the marble.
“Please—Your Majesty—I—I was only—”
“You think I’ll let anyone near her?” My voice didn’t even sound like mine. “You think I’ll risk one more lying hand on her skin?”
I can’t trust a single soul in this damn palace! How can Abby go from someone who almost drove me mad the previous night to this in a blink of an eye? Someone definitely did something.
But who?
The girl’s eyes rolled back. I smelled urine as her legs gave out.
Matteo was suddenly there, on one knee, his head bowed. “Your majesty. She’s just a child. She’s terrified.”
I looked at my hand…claws pricking her throat, blood beading in five perfect dots…and something in me fractured.
I released her. She slid down the wall whimpering.
I turned back to the spilled bucket, the soaked towels. My chest heaved like I’d been running for days.
“Liana stay. Everybody else out,” I said quietly. Too quietly. “Even you, Matteo. Now.”
They all scrambled, tripping over each other, the door slamming behind them.
I picked up a towel, soaked it in what was left of the warm water. Then I went back to the bed and sat beside her.
I cleaned her myself.
Every inch. Slowly. Carefully. Like she could feel it.
I wiped the hollow beneath her eyes, the curve of her collarbone, the soft skin inside her wrists where her pulse should have been racing. I talked the whole time, low and broken.
“I’m sorry, princess. I’m so sorry. No one will harm you again. Never again. Not as long as I’m alive. I swear it.”
My hands shook so badly water dripped everywhere. I didn’t stop until she was clean and dry and tucked back under the blankets, shirt changed, hair brushed, lips moistened with honeyed water I forced between them drop by drop to keep her hydrated.
I remembered yesterday morning like a blade in the gut.
I’d come in early after attending a short meeting, thinking I would meet a happy mate, sniffing flowers while preparing for the academy. I was planning to promise her the whole damn garden she deserved if she liked the Camellias.
Instead I found Liana hunched over her, mouth pressed to Abby’s, hands grabbing her face. I almost clawed her heart out for daring to touch my mate with her lips.
She’d sworn Abby just collapsed walking to the bathroom and she was giving her CPR.
Bullshit.
Why give her CPR instead of calling for help?
No one else had been in our wing that morning. Guards posted at every stair swore that no one else came in. Only Liana.
Only Liana had been alone with my mate. But she said Abby just collapsed?
I was done. The second Abby opened her eyes I was reassigning that girl so far away she’d forget the palace existed.
New maid. New everything. I’d trust no one but myself with her ever again.
“You,” I roared, voice raw enough to shred flesh.
“You were the only one in here. The only one.”
Liana’s knees buckled. “Your majesty. I—I told you, she was walking to the bathroom and just… dropped.”
“Do I look stupid?” I took one step and she flinched like I’d struck her. “You came in to serve her tea. And now my mate won’t wake up. You want to tell me that's a coincidence?”
“Your majesty, I drank the tea myself to prove that it wasn’t poisoned. I really don’t know why she collapsed.” Her sobs choked out, loud and wet.
I didn’t care. I didn't buy it.
“If she dies,” I said, low and lethal, “I will peel the skin from your body inch by inch and feed it to the hounds. Do you understand me?”
She nodded frantically, tears streaming. The sound grated against my skull.
“Get out,” I thundered. “Before I forget she ever liked you.”
Liana bolted, nearly tripping over her own feet, the door slamming behind her.
I dragged both hands through my hair, pacing again. My chest felt like someone had cracked it open and poured acid inside.
Blood pact? I’d do it. I’d slice my veins open right now if it brought her back. But the old laws only allow one per lifetime. I’d already used mine…the night I dragged her soul back from death the first time.
Hours bled into each other. I paced. I roared. I threatened to execute the entire healing ward one by one until someone gave me answers.
Then Thomas burst in, panting, Sheila walking gently behind him…the ancient sorceress, smelling of earth and old blood.
Finally, she’s here.
I didn’t waste time. I grabbed her arm and pulled her towards the bed. “Tell me why she won’t wake up. Tell me how to bring her back. Now.”
Sheila knelt. Leaned over Abby’s still body.
And then she inhaled…slow, deep, animal breaths…from Abby’s hair all the way down to her toes.
She straightened slowly. And smiled. A slow, terrible smile that turned my blood to ice.
“Your Majesty,” she said, voice like bones dragged across stone, “that corpse is not your mate.”
The world stopped.
Every sound died. My heart, my breath, the crackle of the fire…gone.
I couldn’t move. Couldn’t blink.
“What the fuck did you just say?” The words scraped out of me, barely human.
Sheila tilted her head, eyes staring straight through my soul and nodded, confirming what I just heard her say.
Just a single nod that threw my entire world off balance.
I froze, completely, as something inside me shattered into a thousand jagged pieces.
Corpse?