Page 42 of The Healing Dragon (The Red Book #2)

His body begins to feel limp in my arms, but I refuse to think about anything other than pushing forward. I don’t look down at him as I keep going. The burn in my calves intensifies as my breaths become shorter.

I can see the castle walls through the tree branches. The clinic must have something to fix him. Out of all the herbs that I transported and helped grow with my own hands, one of them is damned to help him stay alive.

My shoes slip on the muddy ground, and I fall backwards. I grunt at the impact but get up in the same breath. I resume my position and begin pulling again.

Please. I plead with the Fates. Don’t take him away.

This forsaken forest in the middle of nowhere is not where Oliver will find his end.

The grunting coming from Oliver gets softer and softer until only a few murmurs remain. The Black Castle comes into full view, but far too slowly.

“ Please !” I yell to the sky, the Fates, to the unfair strings that have paved the road for this.

I look down at his chest. Oliver has started to bleed from his mouth. Every time he spoke, more and more blood spread across his chin and down his shirt. I’m running out of time. His breathing becomes more shallow to the point I no longer see the rise and fall of his chest.

“No!”

No, please, not him.

I finally stop and kneel at his side.

“They are coming soon,” he breathes.

“Let them come.”

I hunch over Oli’s chest and hold him as his lungs push quick shallow gasps. I lay there with my ear pressed to his chest and count every shallow breath. One, two, three, four, five…

My tears fall when the sixth never comes.

I wait for it. I couldn’t move even if I tried. My limbs are glued to the ground, frozen in place, holding on. The moment I look at him I would have to accept the fact that I’m in a world where Oli no longer exists.

I don’t know how long I stay there, but the sun sets between the trees and the forest floor grows dark. After my skin chills, the only thing left to do is to make sure he doesn’t spend the night alone here in the open. I can’t think of him being cold while his skin is still warm to the touch.

I get up with little to no sensation in my arms and legs.

My mind is tucked in somewhere deep and my body is going through the motions.

I hook Oli’s arms over mine and start pulling again.

Every step feels like a heavy stone dropping.

I don’t look behind me, instead I just follow the path. My mind disconnects from the actions.

My limbs finally collapse when my body reaches the shield around the castle. The additional tension and weight of the shield is almost too much. I crawl to Oli’s side once again and hold him.

“Oli,” I try to say, but all that comes out is a whine between sobs.

Soldiers walk out of the shield and surround us on all sides. They’re not facing us, instead their eyes are trained on the forest as if waiting for whatever lurks there.

“We need to prepare for a burial,” Roman says somewhere behind me.

Footsteps announce even more people joining in.

“Janelle.” Roman reaches his hand to me, but one glare from me stops him in place. “We need to transport him inside the shield.”

“I will do it,” I say, wiping at my face.

“You don’t have to do it alone.” Roman stretches his hand to me.

I push it away. “I don’t want nor do I care for your sympathy.” The words come with venom. “I will bury him on my own.”

It’s the least I can do to him after I failed him. Oh, how I failed him. Oli deserved so much better than this.

“You think I’m going to give Oliver a burial because of you?” Sorrow fills his eyes as he looks at the man in my arms. The recognition is evident.

“You knew him.” It’s not a question.

“Oliver was born and raised in the Black Castle. His family has been here for generations. His cousin works in the kitchen to this day.”

I never saw or heard of a friendship between Oliver and anyone outside of my father’s men. Looking back, he was never friendly to my father’s men. My father trusted him mostly around me, but that might also be because my father never noticed any nefarious intentions in him.

“He never said he knew any of you.” I look up at Roman.

“He left a long time ago and never came back. He told Jesse in your father’s hide out that he couldn't leave you. ”

“Me?” I sit back, but I feel as if gravity is dragging me down.

“He stuck by you, Janelle. He was your shadow in that house of horrors. Oliver was loyal to the crown, but he was more loyal to your wellbeing.”

I let my head lead forward and fall on Oli. How stupidly selfless. He always had a place to escape to. I imagined he stayed with my father because he had nowhere to go. I doubt he knew about the attack any sooner than me, but I will never know. He can’t tell me now.

“There is only one person guilty here, Janelle. That’s your father.”

“He is coming,” I say, looking down at Oli. “Oli said he is coming.”

Olis’ death is a personal attack on me. My father wanted to hurt me. The wound is supposed to weaken me for the fight. He will come for me next.

Roman calls for a soldier. “Send word to King Oscuro. The Black Castle will be under attack by nightfall.”

He looks up at the sky as if asking the sun if it would stay up longer to buy us time.

There isn’t much light left. The castle is filled with powerful people, but there are far more vulnerable innocents.

If rumors in the halls are to be believed, Brandon took even more soldiers when he added paying my father’s hide out a visit to his agenda.

The ones gone to the underworld might be our undoing. There is no coincidence about it.

“Attacks at nightfall.” Roman shakes his head. “What a cliché asshole your father is.”

Oli is put on a stretcher and carried to the clinic’s castle.

“We will get him ready for the funeral ceremony. He is one of us and deserves to be sent off like it.” Amy Bee gives me a gentle smile I saw her give to her patients.

In a way, it soothes the ache in my heart. As if the pain I feel isn’t unique to me. I’m not alone. But only I can do what needs to be done next. Is this what the Fates had referred to as opportunities to do what is right?

Amy Bee gestures to Roman, getting his attention. “I have a way of contacting someone at Fierno. This person might get to Brandon quicker than a messenger.”

“Please do so,” he says, then turns to me. “If only you had your magic. It would be fitting for your father to meet his end with it.”

Amy Bee clears her throat. “I will be back with something.”

I watch the sun slowly hide behind the mountain peaks. I know two things for certain. One, my father will come tonight and I will be here to receive him. Second, only one of us will live to see tomorrow.