Page 19 of Death of a Mortal

“Drop the flower, Nella, and don’t panic. We’re gonna figure this out. You’re gonna be okay,” I said as calmly as my dread would allow.

She obeyed, and her face began to pale. She swayed where she stood until I caught her and guided her to the ground, propping herhead on my thigh. I looked around helplessly, seeing nothing but the trees surrounding us.

Tears threatened to spill from my eyes as she whispered to me, “Naci…I feel dizzy.”

“I know, little lamb, I’m gonna get you better. We’ll find something.” I wasn’t even sure I believed those words as spittle and foam started gathering at the corners of her mouth, the last of the color in her lips fading to a lifeless gray. The poison was moving too fast.

“No, please...” I pleaded to no one. “Please, not Nella. Please, don’t take her from me.”

The tears started falling as I prayed to the gods I didn’t even believe in. I needed to find help, but I couldn’t leave her here. The banshee had removed my infection. Maybe that was Nella’s only hope. I needed to get her to the banshee.

Avoiding the stem, I grabbed the flower by its petals and heaved Nella into my arms. Holding her with the flower in hand was difficult, but I couldn’t show up to the banshee’s house without it and have any hope that it would help us. I ran as fast as I could with her weight, realizing I had no idea which direction to go. I cursed, knowing I’d never forgive myself if I couldn’t get her help in time simply because I didn’t know east from west. Hell, I might take the flower in my hand and follow her into death instead of living without her.

Nella’s eyes fluttered shut as she started convulsing, but I held her tighter and kept moving, begging her to hold on just a little longer. The fear gripping my heart and mind was relentless, clouding all thought.

She took a sharp breath and fell still in my arms.

“Nella. Nella! Stay with me,” I screamed, shaking her.

Nothing.

I dropped the flower and fell to my knees, Nella still in my grasp. I bellowed, “Help! Please, banshee! I can’t help you without her. Please, help her!”

The black bird landed next to us as tears poured down my cheeks.It plucked at the flower until two blue petals fell off, then ruffled its wings.

I stared at the bird, wondering, as it picked up a petal and held it in its beak. “Will…will that save her?”

It squawked again.

No way I could trust a bird with life or death, but from textbooks and stories I’d heard growing up, I knew magical things could be painfully ironic. The antidote to the flower’s poisonous thorns being its petals would be fitting.

I made a split-second decision and lowered her to the ground. I grasped the last bit of hope I had and pushed a petal into her mouth, and held her jaw closed, looking from her to the bird and back. If this didn’t work, we were both done. Nella and I would go together. This was a pain I could not bear.

After what felt like a lifetime, Nella’s chest finally rose in an immense and wondrous breath. Her eyes fluttered open a moment later. I choked out a half-laugh, half-sob as I pulled her into my chest and held her while her breathing became steadier and even.

As I rocked her, I looked around at the bird that was still watching us. “Thank you. I owe you a debt,” I said with a watery smile.

“You’re talking to a bird, Naci. If I didn’t know better, I would thinkyouwere poisoned and delirious,” Nella said, her voice still weak.

I laughed through my tears as relief washed over me. Her voice shook, but color was coming back to her lips and face. The bumps that had erupted up her arm were disappearing too.

She opened her palm to reveal four small, red dots, the punctures now nothing more than healed pinpricks. I finally believed she would be okay.

The bird flew away, and I stared after it for a few moments before reality came crashing back down. I still needed to find, kill, and disembowel an animal, and then find the banshee’s house.

“Can you stand, Nella? We need to finish this task, and I can’t leave you here by yourself.”

She nodded, and with my help, stood on shaky knees. I ripped off my already-torn sleeve and gathered the thorny flower in it, then slipped an arm around her waist. She draped one of hers over my shoulders.

“Good?” I asked.

“Good,” she replied, leaning a considerable amount of weight on me. Gods, I was proud of her strength.

I had no idea how two girls, traipsing through the woods, while one was mildly incapacitated, would avoid alerting the entire forest that we were here. But another caw broke my thoughts. Was that bird going to help us again?

Another squawk. It sounded like it came from ahead to our right, so I lugged Nella that way and found the black bird on the ground some fifty paces from where I’d revived Nella.

It was pecking at something on the ground, which turned out to be a bleeding mouse.