20 Chapter 20: Fury and Fear
The healer’s words hung in the air like a noose. Suicide? Seraphina had tried to kill herself?
My chest constricted painfully as I stared at her motionless form on the bed. Her skin was frighteningly pale, her breathing shallow. Too shallow.
“Tell me you can save her,” I demanded, my voice rough with emotions I refused to name.
The healer met my eyes steadily. “I need to prepare an antidote immediately. Moonshade Blossom works slowly, but once it reaches the heart…” She didn’t need to finish.
“Make it,” I ordered. “Now.”
She nodded sharply. “I’ll need my assistant to gather additional supplies from my quarters.”
Qrion immediately stepped forward. “I’ll escort her back. We’ll hurry.”
As they rushed from the room, I turned back to Seraphina. Something about this didn’t make sense. Suicide? The Seraphina I knew–even the broken, defeated version of her I’d created-
wasn’t the type to give up. To end her own life.
“She wouldn’t do this,” I said aloud, more to myself than anyone else. “She wouldn’t.”
Ronan shook his head, his face ashen. “You didn’t see her face after you struck her, Kaelen. The light just… went out of her eyes.”
His words were like daggers to my chest. I wanted to roar, to deny it, but the evidence lay
before us.
Mrs. Moon sobbed quietly at her daughter’s bedside, clutching Seraphina’s limp hand in both of hers. “My sweet girl… please don’t leave me. You’re all I have left.”
My mother approached the distraught woman and placed a hand on her shoulder. The gesture seemed inadequate in the face of such grief. “The healer will save her, Gloria. We have to believe
that.”
Father stood near the door, his expression unreadable, but I could smell the acrid scent of his guilt mingling with my own. We had allowed this to happen. We had created the conditions that drove Seraphina to this desperate act.
Minutes stretched into what felt like hours as we waited for Orion to return with the healer’s assistant. Each labored breath Seraphina took seemed more fragile than the last.
“Where the hell are they?” I growled, pacing at the foot of her bed.
As if summoned by my impatience, the door burst open, Orion and the healer’s assistant rushed in, carrying a wooden box filled with various bottles and herbs,
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“We have everything,” the assistant announced, slightly out of breath. She quickly joined Healer Morris at a small table, where they began mixing ingredients with practiced efficiency.
“How much longer?” I demanded.
“Almost ready,” the healer replied without looking up. “But administering it will be difficult. She needs to swallow it, and in her unconscious state…”
“We’ll manage,” Ronan said firmly.
When the antidote was finally prepared–a murky green liquid in a small vial–we gathered around Seraphina’s bed. The healer carefully lifted Seraphina’s head while I took the vial.
“Tilt her head back slightly,” she instructed. “Pour it slowly, massaging her throat to help her
swallow.”
My hands trembled slightly as I brought the vial to Seraphina’s lips. I’d touched these lips before, in anger, in lust, but never with such care. Never with such fear of losing them forever.
“Don’t you dare die,” I whispered, too quietly for anyone else to hear. “Do you understand me? You don’t get to leave like this.”
I tipped the liquid carefully into her mouth while the healer gently massaged Seraphina’s throat. For a terrifying moment, I thought she might choke, but slowly, painfully slowly, she swallowed.
“Good,” the healer said, tension easing slightly from her shoulders. “Now we wait.”
“How long?” I asked.
“If it works, we should see signs within the hour. Ho
If. That single word carved a hollow in my chest.
fever will break first.
Mrs. Moon’s soft prayers filled the silence as we waited. I couldn’t bring myself to move away from Seraphina’s side, watching every shallow breath, every flicker of her eyelids.
“We
“This is our fault, Orion said quietly, standing beside me. “We did this to her.”
I couldn’t argue. The evidence of our cruelty lay before us, pale and struggling for life.
“She has to recover,” Ronan said, his voice thick. “She has to.”
Thirty agonizing minutes passed with no change. Mrs. Moon’s prayers had given way to quiet weeping. My mother sat beside her, offering silent support. My father had retreated to the corner of the room, his face drawn with concern.
Then, just as despair began to settle over me like a shroud, I noticed a change. Seraphina’s breathing seemed slightly stronger. Pressing my palm to her forehead, I realized her fever had begun to break.
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“Healer,” I called sharply. “Her temperature is dropping.”
The healer quickly moved to check Seraphina’s pulse and other vital signs. “The antidote is working,” she confirmed, relief evident in her voice. “Her body is fighting back.”
The collective exhale in the room was audible. Mrs. Moon clutched her daughter’s hand to her chest, tears flowing freely down her cheeks.
“Thank the Moon Goddess,” she whispered.
I should have felt relief, but instead, a storm of emotions brewed inside me–anger, fear, guilt, and something deeper, something I refused to acknowledge even now. How close had we come to losing her? How much more could she endure before she broke completely?
Another twenty minutes passed before Seraphina’s eyelids finally fluttered. Everyone in the room froze, watching as she struggled toward consciousness.
When her eyes opened at last, they were clouded with confusion and lingering pain. She blinked slowly, trying to focus.
“What…” Her voice was barely audible, cracked and dry. “What happened?”
The simple question unleashed a torrent of emotion inside me. Before I could stop myself, I was leaning over her, my hands gripping the bedframe so tightly my knuckles turned white.
“What happened?” I repeated, my voice dangerously low. “You poisoned yourself. You tried to die. That’s what happened.”
Seraphina’s eyes widened slightly, confusion still evident in her gaze.
“Kaelen,” my father warned, stepping forward. “She’s just regained consciousness.”
But I couldn’t contain the fear that had been building inside me, transmuting into anger–the emotion I understood best. “Everyone out,” I ordered suddenly.
“Alpha-” the healer began to protest.
“OUT!” I roared, my Alpha authority filling the command. “My brothers stay. Everyone else, leave. Now.”
Mrs. Moon looked ready to challenge me, but my mother placed a gentle hand on her arm. “Let’s give them a moment, Gloria. She’s going to recover. We’ll be right outside.”
Reluctantly, everyone filed out of the room, leaving only my brothers and me with Seraphina. The moment the door closed, I rounded on her.
I grasped her shoulders, careful despite my anger not to hurt her further, but firm enough to keep her attention. “What the hell were you thinking, Seraphina? You dared to poison yourself?”
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Her blue eyes, still hazy from the poison, met mine. In them, I saw confusion, pain, and something else I couldn’t identify. The fragility of her body under my hands reminded me how close we’d come to losing her, and it terrified me in ways I wasn’t prepared to face.
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