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Nikolett bumped Eric out of the way, and Annie nearly screamed when he stopped CPR.Beside her, the AED once again calmly announced, “No shock advised.”

Which could mean that his heartbeat was steady enough it didn’t need it.

Or that his heart had stopped altogether.

Annie lunged for Colum’s wrist, frantically pressing her fingers to it.There was still a pulse.She nearly sobbed in relief, and yet as she watched, his chest didn’t rise now that Eric wasn’t breathing for him.

Nikolett ripped a pre-filled syringe out of its packaging, yanked the cap off, and with one quick motion, stabbed it into Colum’s thigh, depressing the plunger.

Was she a doctor?How did she know what to give?What if she made it worse?

Nikolett opened a second syringe and stabbed that into Colum too.

From the moment Eric had stopped mouth-to-mouth to the second syringe going in, it had been less than a minute but felt like a lifetime.

Nikolett grabbed the third thing she’d taken from the kit, placing a small mask over Colum’s nose and mouth and squeezing the inhaler canister built into it.

Then she leaned back, falling awkwardly onto her butt with her broken leg still outstretched as she watched Colum.

Nothing happened.

“What did you give him?”Xavier demanded, voice shaking.“Are you a doctor?”

“No.”Nikolett didn’t look away from Colum.“But I’ve been poisoned multiple times, so we travel with antivenom, and things to treat anaphylaxis.He inhaled some sort of poisonous gas, and his lungs seized, so I gave him epinephrine, caffeine, and albuterol.”

“What if you’re wrong?About what it was and what he needs?”Annie demanded.

Nikolett met her gaze, the sympathy in the look almost undoing Annie.“Then we’ll?—”

But Nikolett didn’t have to finish that sentence because Colum took a breath.

He inhaled, the sound sudden and shocking.His body shivered as he took a second breath, his lashes fluttering but eyes still closed.

“Get him up,” Nikolett commanded.

Eric lifted Colum by the shoulders, kneeling behind him and propping him up.Nikolett pressed the mask over his mouth and depressed the inhaler again.This time, the inside of the mask fogged up when Colum exhaled.

He was alive.Breathing.

For several moments, it was as if Colum was the only person in the room capable of breathing, the rest of them still holding theirs as Eric held him.

Xavier and Annie shifted closer, each kneeling on either side of his outstretched legs.Annie was vaguely aware of someone helping Nikolett rise.

She’d saved Colum’s life.

Eric looked up at Nikolett, his face drawn, expression stark now that the crisis had passed, and the flat expression no longer masked what he was feeling.

Nikolett held his gaze, waiting for something.

Eric said nothing, his focus dropping back to Colum.

Nikolett turned to Annie, passing her the mask.“There’s one more dose in here if he needs it.”Then she left, hobbling out of the room, leaning heavily on the arm of her guard to use him like a crutch.

Annie lost track of time as they remained there, watching Colum breathe in and out, every inhale and exhale feeling like a gift.At some point, one of the Spartan Guard arrived with a small portable oxygen tank.They slipped a mask over Colum’s face, the green elastic going around his head to hold it in place, while a tube led to the small olive-colored tank.

Then finally, mercifully, he came to, those beautiful green eyes staring back at her the greatest thing she’d ever seen.

“Colum,” Xavier said.