Page 63 of Tangled Sails

She could still heal? When and how? For how long?

Tentative joy surged within me as my father’s face became less pale. I still couldn’t breathe. She was doing it. Lyri was healing my father. Perhaps he would live. Perhaps she would be able to save him. A terrifying rush of hope bloomed within me.

I looked at Lyri’s face, overwhelmed with gratitude and wanting to drink in her beauty and sweetness, but instead my heart sank.

It was like all the color that had been infused into my father’s skin was being slowly drained from Lyri’s. She looked pale, almost gray, and her whole body looked like she was being dragged down.

“Lyri, stop,” I said, reaching out to touch her shoulder but worried that I’d cause more harm than good if I acted too rashly. Perhaps it was normal and nothing to worry about.

She ignored me and kept singing.

But then her voice wavered, becoming weak and breathy.

I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her away from my father. Her song cut off and she immediately went limp in my arms. I sank to the ground beside my father’s bed with her draped across my lap, wondering what had gone wrong. She’d never said anything about her healing taking a physical toll on her. Had she just kept that to herself? Or were things different since I’d cut her hair? I had no idea. I didn’t know how magic worked!

I pushed her hair back and cupped her cheek. “Lyri?”

Thankfully, her eyes fluttered open and managed to focus on me. “I was healing him,” she breathed out, her eyes blinking slowly.

“Yes, but at what cost?” Her skin was cold and her limp weight was heavy in my arms. It was terrifying. “It was too much for you.”

“It was worth it,” she murmured, and then her eyes drifted closed.

Panic surged through me. “Lyri!” I shook her a little, my panic rising to cloud my vision. “No, no, no. Lyri, wake up!”

When she still didn’t respond, I ignored my labored breathing and shifted her until I was able to stand with her in my arms. “Help!” I shouted. “I need help in here.”

“What’s going on?” my mother asked as she sat up, eyes still clouded with sleep, but I didn’t have time to answer.

Several guards, a doctor, and a nurse all poured into the room.

“Check on my father,” I ordered the doctor. “And you, come here,” I said to the nurse as I moved Lyri out of the way and laid her on the floor. “She collapsed and I don’t know what’s wrong with her.”

The nurse spared only one glance toward the king before focusing her attention on Lyri. My focus was split between the frantic energy surrounding my father’s bed and the desperate fear that Lyri’s collapse caused in me.

Not knowing what was wrong with her was eating away at my insides, and there was nothing I could do to help.

Was it her magic? Did it always drain her like this?

The nurse was efficient and professional, and after several minutes, she looked down on Lyri in confusion. “I cannot find anything wrong with her, Your Highness.”

“Nothing?”

She shook her head. “Her heartbeat is strong, her breathing regular. She has no injuries, swelling, or rashes. I believe if we wait, she will wake on her own.”

Relief washed through me. “Very well. Tend to the king.”

She hurried away, and just as my panic started to rise again, someone knelt beside me.

“I’m here, Your Highness.”

I looked up, relieved to see Harlan at my side. “I don’t know how to help her, Harlan.” I looked over my shoulder at the bed. “And my father…” I wanted to check on him, to see for myself if his condition had really changed, but Lyri… I looked back at her, watching her chest rise and fall. The nurse had said there was nothing wrong with her. Was it just fatigue from healing?

“Go check on the king,” Harlan urged me. “I’ll watch over her.”

I looked back at the bed, where my mother and the doctors all surrounded my father. My mother’s shouts of confusion and worry tore at me.

“Go.” He rested a hand on my arm and fixed his gaze to mine. “She’ll be all right for a moment.”