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No!

My limbs feel like my blood was replaced with lead. My heart feels like a lump of coal.

“Come back, Alaric!” McColl begs.

I think she is using her magic on me because I feel warmth. It feels wonderful. It soon recedes.

No!

Please!

She must redouble her effort because it returns… Warming…warming…warming…fading.

Gone!

I’m sinking into darkness. I’m dying.

“No,” she whispers. “No…please.” She sounds distraught. “I’m so sorry.” She must touch me again because I feel a buzzing inside, same as before. I start to come back. It’s working. But as soon as she severs contact, I am sinking again.

McColl!

I try to scream her name, but my lips won’t form words.

She gets up and leaves. I don’t need eyes; I can sense it.

No!

Please!

Stay!

Don’t go!

McColl!

It’s not that she doesn’t listen. She can’t hear me. She thinks I’m dead but…I’m not. I’m still here.

My heart beats once, and then nothing. It beats again…harder this time.

That’s when the pain hits. Perhaps Iamdying. Is this what death feels like? Pain like I have never felt before takes hold of me as my heart starts to beat…faster than ever before. It races, trying to keep up with the wind.

If I am dying, why is my heart beating again?

I draw air into my lungs, but it feels like a thousand daggers have lodged themselves there.

I think I scream as my back bows. I swear that my spine will sever in two. My chest is on fire. My blood, too. I’m burning up from the inside out.

Just when I think that I will surely die from the agony…it stops. Just like that, it is gone as if it never existed.

The skin on my chest feels warm, and my bones feel…they feel different. It is the strangest thing.

I groan as I sit up, putting a hand to my forehead, which is sweaty. My chest rises and falls quickly as I attempt to catch my breath.

I think I died. I’m sure McColl brought me back, even though she doesn’t know it.

McColl.

I look at the tree line. I’m sure that’s where she went. It’s where I told her to go. To the horses. To freedom. I need to get to her before she leaves. I might already be too late.