Forty-Four

Mircea

“Vali!” I screamed as I felt the Bond vibrate. As I felt it waver. Where the fuck was she?

I had managed to get myself up and out of the castle, with a notable amount of help from Jackson, Marcy, Dallas and Anne. But now, on the battlefield, I could see as demon reinforcements had arrived. Could see as Lilith walked through the field like death itself, walking towards me.

But I didn’t have the time or energy to deal with her. Not when the Bond wavered completely and I felt what was happening to Vali’s body.

She’d killed Traian, but something was wrong. I could taste the bitter flavour on her tongue, not just the blood but something else. Poison.

“He…” I trailed off, still unable to locate her and my dead uncle. “She’s been poisoned.” I said, and Dallas moved to stand in front of me. Everything was happening at once, and I didn’t know how to handle it. Over his shoulder I could still see Lilith stalking towards me, but I still had time before she reached me. Vali didn’t have that time.

“What kind?” Dallas asked, and I just shook my head. How was I supposed to know that?

“If it was in Traian’s blood he must have taken it while running, it’s probably on his body.” Marcy said as she stood next to Dallas. She turned her attention to me. “Dallas and I will get to her, you focus on Lilith and the…” she trailed off as we all felt it.

As we all felt Vali’s life ebbing away. As she fell to the ground. Each wolf froze on the field, turning to look in the same direction, towards their fallen Chosen. I screamed so loud that I felt my vocal chords threaten to tear, and collapsed onto my knees.

A wave of power shot out of me, shaking the earth for miles around us, sending cracks through the ground, and turning every demon on the battlefield to dust. Turning every vampire who still followed Traian to dust. Turning the Demon Queen to dust.

“Holy shit.” Jackson swore as he looked over the field, as every wolf, fae and vampire left standing turned their attention back to me.

“Go!” I shouted to Dallas and Marcy, feeling the Bond weaken and stretch and twist and pull. They didn’t hesitate to shift and sprint through the field, towards where I could just see a body, could see white hair reflecting the moonlight.

“Mircea…” Anne’s voice was calm as she placed a hand on my shoulder, and at the pitied tone I looked at my mark. At my fucking fading mark.

“No…” I whispered, holding onto my forearm like I could force it to stay there. Like I could stop it from receding down to my wrist.

“What kind of poison would Traian have used?” Jackson asked, and I knew it wasn’t directed at me. It couldn’t be, because there was no possible way I would be able to focus for long enough to even give a one word answer at this point.

“Vali, no…” I whispered as the black tendrils of the mark unbound themselves from my arm. No. After everything we’d had to do, after everything she’d had to do, this wasn’t how it would end. No fucking way.

“It could have been anything, but for it to act this quickly on a wolf…” Anne replied to Jackson.

“You’re thinking it’s Wolf’s Bane.” Jackson put two and two together as the mark began fading from my wrist, continuing to disappear from the back of my hand.

“Well, being Bonded with a vampire, she might have a chance.” Anne said, and I heard her heartbeat hasten. She was as panicked as I was. “Kang-Dae is a healer, find him and-” she was cut off by Jackson shifting and running to where we had all last seen Mun Kang-Dae and Nari.

“Mir, we need to get you-”

“Anne, I need to…” I trailed off, scratching at my hand as the mark itched as it disappeared. As if my skin knew something was missing and needed some form of pain to replace it.

“Okay, okay…” She whispered, helping me stand up and staying directly next to me as I walked through the silent field. Every step kicked up a pile of dust from a demon or vampire that I had killed. I don’t even know how my power could distinguish the good vampires from the bad ones, but I didn’t have time to question that right now. I had to…

When we reached Vali my heart fell out of my chest.

Her breaths were so shallow they were almost non-existent. Her heartbeat was so faint it sounded like a whisper reaching my ears.

“Vali…” I trailed off, realising that Kang-Dae had gotten here before me.

“My King, I don’t know if she’s going to…” He told me, and I shook my head.

“There’s no antidote on Traian’s body?” Anne asked, and Marcy replied.

“Seems like it was a very final decision on his part. The entire point of the poison was to kill Vali through his blood, he knew there was no point carrying the antidote on him.”

“What the fuck are we going to do if…” Jackson trailed off, running a hand through his hair. “I don’t think I can start from scratch with a new Chosen.” He said as the mark receded to my fingers. Fuck. She was almost gone.

Vali. I said her name, sitting on the ground and pulling her away from Kang-Dae into my lap. Vali, you aren’t fucking leaving me here. Do you hear me?

There was no response, not a single fucking twitch to prove she was listening.

“Vali, you better be listening to me.” I swore, and her eyes moved behind her eyelids. That was as good a sign as any. “You aren’t leaving me here alone. I can’t rebuild this all by myself, I need you with me. What the fuck am I supposed to do if you’re gone? Fate did not give us less than a few measly days with each other.”

“Mir, whatever Traian gave her, it was a mix of things I don’t think there’s-”

“Can you tie her life to mine?” I asked, cutting Kang-Dae off and staring into his eyes. He grimaced.

“It’s possible, but it’s extremely dangerous. If it works, when one of you dies the other will too. One of you gets sick, so will the other. If it doesn’t work…” He trailed off, and Anne cut in for him.

“She dies anyway, either separate to you, or you go together. It’s too risky, we need our King,” she said. I shook my head. What part of this was difficult to understand? Vali had already given enough to the world, it wasn’t fair for her to die before she could rebuild everything.

“If she dies, Anne, I will never sit on that throne or wear that crown on my head,” I replied. “I swear on Selene, on my mother and father’s graves, I will not sit on that fucking throne alone. Do you understand me?” She ran a hand over her face, and nodded.

“I understand.” She replied, so I turned back to Kang-Dae.

“Do it.” I instructed.

“Mircea-”

“I am your King and I am ordering you to tie her life to mine.” The words left my mouth before I even thought of them. Before I could watch my tone or choose my words carefully. It didn’t matter, because the mark was down to my last knuckle bone. If we didn’t do this now she would be gone forever, and I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if she was killed by Traian while enacting revenge on my behalf.

“Of course, your majesty.” Kang-Dae replied, placing one hand on Vali’s chest and one on mine. She was wrapped in someone’s cloak, having been completely naked after shifting back to her human body.

“Deep, slow breaths.” He instructed, so I followed. Slow breaths, as deep into my lungs as I could force the air to. But with each passing breath that calm rhythm was getting harder to keep to. I pushed her hair away from her face, tucking it behind her ear as I started to feel dizzy.

As my breathing became forced and shallow like hers.

As I blacked out and lost my grip on the world.