Page 59 of A Fate of Ice and Lies (Fated #1)

“They’re alive because of you,” I told him. “Nothing else matters.”

“I put you and Brent in danger,” he repeated, his eyes dimming to a lighter brown.

“No,” I started, but Teddy stopped me with a kiss to the corner of my mouth.

Without saying anything, she crawled off my lap, and when she stood in front of George, she wrapped her arms around his midsection and over Victoria’s back. She drew back to kiss Victoria, who held out her arms to Teddy.

Cradled in her arms, Teddy wiped Victoria’s tears although her cheeks were wet with her own.

“There are no words sufficient to thank you, George. You saved us all. Thank you,” Teddy said .

George nodded, and she hugged Victoria closer to her.

Somehow, Javier carried both his sisters when he went to George to talk to him.

With Victoria in her arms, Teddy stepped into my outstretched arms while we watched the flames consume her home.

Hee-haw brayed from where he watched us beside Everly.

Teddy flinched with each crack and pop her roaring house made, but I only heard her resigned sigh. I only saw the shadows that fell behind her eyes. Only felt her despair.

She took a step forward and then another. When her bottom lip wobbled, she dug her face against Victoria’s neck. Her shoulders lifted when she took another deep breath and swayed when Donnie drew her to his side.

“I’m sorry, Ted.” He kissed the top of her head.

She shook her head, her grip on Victoria tightening. I fisted my hands beside me, not sure what to do for her.

“Everyone’s okay.” Her hollow words shook while more tears fell down her face.

“We can rebuild your cottage,” George offered, his tone gentle. “Make it however you want.”

Her throat bobbed as she stared at her crumbling house. Just stared.

George and I went up to her house and called our magic to turn the fallen snow into rain. Slowly, the fire gave out, yet nothing but rubble remained, whereas mere moments ago, the house was alive with chatter and joy.

The flames of my anger threatened to erupt just as savagely as her house had. My limbs shook from the anger—for what they’d done to Teddy. To those she loved. All to get to me.

If these people, these humans, wanted to play, it wouldn’t only be Nalari who hunted them down. The ones I’d killed had died too swiftly. They didn’t experience the terror I had when I heard the explosion. The anguish Teddy now felt.

Brenton put a heavy hand on my shoulder and squeezed. His face was ashen, but he ticked his mouth into one of his mischievous smiles.

“Highness, think you can spare a moment to heal your humble servant?” It came out light, but I felt his pain. Smelled the blood that poured from a wound I didn’t know he had.

He held his other hand over his abdomen, where blood spilled fast.

“ Vith , Brent,” George growled.

Brenton let out a hiss when George helped him sit on the snowy ground.

“I saw you get shot and didn’t want you getting all the attention.” Brenton winked.

I knelt in front of him while Everly asked George about where he’d been shot. But with George’s magic back, he’d been able to heal himself.

“Lie down, asshole,” I grunted.

I helped him the rest of the way down. Teddy sat and rested his head onto her lap. Brenton smiled this wicked smile as he waggled his brows at me.

“I think Teddy likes me,” the idiot said.

“Behave or I’ll bury your head in the snow,” she retorted.

But her eyes were wide with fear.

I didn’t blame her. He’d already lost a lot of blood.

I lifted Brenton’s shirt to find blood gushing out of his wound.

I circled my magic through Brenton, found the bullet wedged in his liver with shrapnel in his intestines and bones fragmented from the impact of the bullet.

While removing it and healing his organs wouldn’t be difficult, I recognized the metal inside him as iron.

Already, the deadly metal had eaten away at his liver and was working its way through his body.

I hissed out a breath as dread gripped me.

“What’s wrong?” Teddy asked, her tone as worried as I felt.

I shook my head, unable to say the words aloud. But Brenton was dead, regardless of what I did for him.

Somehow George had healed himself. Nalari had healed Everly.

“How did you heal yourself?” I asked George.

“The bullet went straight through,” he replied. “I just had to heal the wound.”

I looked back at Everly, and she chewed her bottom lip.

“I don’t know how Nalari did it,” she said.

“Nalari,” I called, but my Guardian’s mental shield was still up. “Try calling Nalari,” I told Teddy. “She blocked me.”

Not sure what else to do, I swirled my magic through his wounds again. Slowly, tentatively. Marking each decaying organ and the way his blood blackened. Seeing if I could pull the poison out and somehow repair the damage the iron had already done.

“You’re not gonna let me die, are you?” Brenton asked, his voice still light and teasing. His face was paler, though, eyes dimmer while his grin remained the same.

“No,” I growled.

At least I hoped not.

It didn’t make sense, though. How had George been able to heal himself with iron in his system? Even if it’d only been inside him for a few seconds, he shouldn’t have been able to survive it.

“Tell me what’s wrong.” Although weak, Brenton’s tone took on a serious tone I’d only heard a few times .

I sighed. “The bullet was made of iron.”

Beside me, George and Everly swore. Brenton nodded, his expression solemn.

“Pull it out,” he told me.

“I don’t think I’ll be able to stop the bleeding once I remove it,” I explained. “It’s in your liver with smaller pieces in your intestines. I’m worried you’ll bleed out from the inside.”

“Pull it out, Elias,” he said again.

I did as he said, sending my magic through him to remove the bullet from his liver.

His liver collapsed, but I continued working, pulling out every fragment I saw.

Blood surged out as I removed the bullet through the open wound in his stomach.

I continued to work quickly to mend him and close any openings. Blood kept rushing through, though.

My magic stitched and mended while more small openings appeared. More hemmed areas reopened. More infected areas collapsed.

It was a losing battle.

After removing my shirt, I pressed it against the open wound. Within the span of a few beats, my shirt was soaked through.

“There’s a sight I don’t mind dying to,” Brenton joked, but it came out distant, as if he were far away. “What is that? A ten-pack of abs?”

“You’re not dying,” Teddy told him.

She ran her fingers through his hair, and he blinked a few times before he closed his eyes with that grin still on his face.

“Sorry, Elias.” He licked his lips. “Your lady likes me more.”

Beside me, Donnie removed his long-sleeved shirt and pressed it harder against his wound. Went as far as kneeling on it, making Brenton groan .

“Of course, I like you more,” Teddy told him softly, still playing with his hair. “After all, you are the ugliest in your group.”

“You remember our first date?” Brenton licked his lips again.

“How could I forget?” While she said it teasingly, two tears fell down her cheeks.

I hated the sight of her tears. Hated that I didn’t know how to make this right.

“I. . .” I looked around at my friends. Defeated, I pulled at the ends of my hair, my hands soaked in his blood now covering my hair. “I don’t know what to do.”

George and Everly knelt on Brenton’s other side. While Everly hid her fear well, there were streaks across her cheeks where tears had already fallen.

“What do you need from me?” George asked Brenton.

George took Brenton’s hand, and Brenton turned his head to look at him. He looked at Everly before he turned those dimming eyes on me.

“I’m glad to have known you all,” Brenton said. “To have been part of your family.”

“You’re not dying,” I gritted out. Or tried to but it came out desperate and gravelly.

“Your mate”—he said looking up at Teddy—“and her friends are good people. Treat her right or I’ll come back to haunt you.”

Teddy let out a watery laugh, and she rubbed her nose with the back of her hand. But I rejected his words, his easy acceptance of his pending death, and went back to work. Trying to mend what was beyond repair. Fighting for Brenton’s life .

So involved in what I did that I didn’t hear Teddy until she shouted my name.

“Nalari said he needs blood,” she said. “I’m O negative.”

I continued working on him, losing every inch of this battle his body waged against him.

“Elias,” Teddy said firmly.

I looked up at her, feeling helpless. Useless. My best friend, my brother, was dying, and I couldn’t stop it.

“Nalari’s on her way back, but she said Brent would respond to my blood,” she said.

She could be right, but I wasn’t sure. While a fae’s body would reject any fae’s blood that wasn’t their mate’s, a human’s blood might work.

“How can I give it to him?”

Everly took out her dagger, and when Teddy reached out her hand, Everly sliced Teddy’s palm open.

Everly said something I couldn’t hear with the ringing in my ears growing louder.

Teddy squeezed her hand into a fist, and when George opened Brenton’s mouth, Teddy guided her blood to spill into his mouth.

I turned my attention back to Brenton. To the way his chest barely moved with the shallow breaths he took. The way his eyes remained shut. The way his pallor had turned a mute gray.

He was dying and so close to death, I didn’t know how to fight it.

“The herb,” I pushed out. “He needs one of our herbs.”

“It’s gone,” George said.

“What?” I gasped out.

“Nalari said there was an attack on our home too.” Everly’s eyes darkened with her words. “Everything’s gone. We lost everything, Elias. ”

My lungs ignited with hot rage, and I barely suppressed the shaking in my limbs as I focused on Brenton. I sent my magic back through him, agony hitting me at the amount of blood still spilling.

“Tell me what to do,” George said.

I forced my magic to brighten and instructed George to follow it. While George’s magic instinctively knew how to heal himself, he’d never healed another, but we worked together. Quietly. Tirelessly. Two brothers rejecting death. Refusing to lose one of our own. All while knowing we were too late.