Page 13 of Faerie Fate (Fae Academy for Halflings #7)
Mike crouched beside me and pushed the hair away from my face. A round of murmurs filtered through the roaring in my ears and I blinked at him, the edges of my vision blurry now. My head spun and when I tried to speak, another hacking cough curved me inward.
“Step aside, Michael, please.”
Nurse Julie filled up the remainder of my vision.
This… this was so much worse than before. A marked difference from the general malaise. I’d gone downhill.
“Tavi, you have to listen to me.” Fingers snapped in front of my face. “What are you feeling now?”
“She was sick before,” Bronwen offered.
“Her nurse at the fae hospital told me it was a bloodborne thing,” Mike added. “From a zombie bite?”
There was a pause, and then Bronwen’s agreement. “We used necromancy to raise a witch from the dead and Tavi got bit. Infected. But this is new! She’s never looked this way before.”
I couldn’t answer for myself. I couldn’t do much, a prisoner inside my body; the only constant was the pain of the mate bond. I sweated, trembling, trapped.
“She was doing better. Some kind of witch spell that wasn’t exactly a cure but got her in fighting shape.”
I’d never heard Bronwen so panicked. And I had no way to assure her that I’d be okay. Hell, would I be?
The chills bowed me into a pretzel and I shook so hard I dropped Mike’s hand.
Julie slid an arm around me and helped me into a seated position. I barely felt her through another wave of pain. My skin went tight, my internal organs shivering like I’d been electrocuted.
“What changed?” Julie mused, snapping her fingers to track my eyes. “What happened to her in the last— Oh.”
She pressed her free hand against my forehead and a distant ripple of her magic filtered through my system.
The wound on my neck gave a pulse and my eyes rolled back in my head. I wished her magic was strong enough to heal me. To help me feel like I wasn’t on the edge of death.
Death would be kinder than suffering through this.
Several voices spoke at once and blurred. Julie’s mouth moved but my heart thundered in my ears. What was she saying? The unfocused vision gave me three of her, three sets of lips moving, and me unable to read any of them.
She moved her hand down to my neck and the pain tripled. Holy fuck .
I wasn’t going to make it past this. And I didn’t want to.
At once, the exhaustion was a comfort rather than something to fight against. If I just gave in?—
My lungs expanded with air forced into my body. Julie was breathing for me. Her magic forced me to stay tethered to the moment and to her.
“The magic of the mate bond has had some kind of alchemical reaction with the zombie curse,” she said. Her voice was clear. “Tavi is in real danger.”
“So what can we do?” Bronwen stood close enough for me to hear her but not see her.
They’d be fine without me. The thought was small, quiet in my head, and grew steadily until a kernel of peace filled my heart. They were strong enough to make it through whatever would come their way.
Noren was here. I tried to reach out for the direwolf I knew was close but my arm refused to move.
“She’ll need either her mother’s or Queen Laina’s witch powers to help push back the curse. It will only be a temporary fix but that’s what we’re looking at right now, to save her life,” Julie said.
Mike sighed. “My mother is unconscious in the hospital.”
Could I actually die with Mike upset with me? With him looking at me differently, treating me differently?
Would I be able to find him on the other side?
“Livvy is locked at the academy with Kendrick Grimaldi,” Bronwen added.
“Give me a moment alone with Tavi.” Julie’s hand was a steady pressure on my neck. Her healing touch was the only thing keeping me from blacking out. “Please.”
“I’m not leaving. Look at her! She needs me.”
“Prince Michael, I’m sorry, but there are some things I’m sure she won’t be able to answer with you here.” Julie sounded apologetic.
But she stood firm against Mike’s insistence, and it felt like a part of me disappeared with him when he ushered the rest of the students out of the room.
I caught a hint of Coral’s muttered cursing and then a stampede of feet as my friends, my family, moved out of the basement.
“Tavi? It’s okay if you can’t move, but I’m going to need you to answer me,” Julie began the moment we were alone. “Tell me about the mate bond.”
Her magic flickered in a soothing push to my insides. Rearranging them back where they belonged and giving me enough relief to swallow.
“I don’t feel him right now,” I managed, twisting slightly to face her. “It’s easier to bear it in Faerie.” Like a weight had somehow been peeled off of my soul, leaving me broken but on my terms.
“How did it feel in the human realm?” she pressed.
I swallowed. “Like we were connected by a tether. A chain. I’m terrified.
” I reached for Julie, needing to hold her, my fingers wrapping around her wrist. The vulnerability sucked but I needed to tell her, to admit it.
“It felt like he was dragging me down to him. And eventually I’ll be just as evil as he is. If he doesn’t kill me first.”
Julie’s eyes were like sapphires, pools of sorrow and regret.
“Tavi, the mate bond… I’m not as familiar with this as I should be, wolves aren’t my specialty, but I know enough. Kendrick is going to be able to find you anywhere now. As long as he’s in the same realm.”
I knew that, somehow, but I wasn’t sure that being in Faerie would actually protect me. A small measure of calm stole over me.
“Having the barrier closed at the moment is a godsend when it comes to keeping him away from you. Keeping you safe,” Julie continued. “But this also means that defeating Kendrick will be a lot harder than it was before.”
“I’m not going to hesitate, if that’s what you’re worried about.” My eyes slipped closed when Julie snuggled me closer. “I’ll do whatever it takes to kill him.”
“ Sweetheart .”
My heart cracked at the regret, the pain, in that word.
“You won’t be able to kill him. Because when two souls are mated that way, when one of them dies…then so does the other.”