Page 22 of Blood & Ash

Elise lay under two quilts on a mattress dragged close to the hearth. Her dark hair clung to her forehead, and each breath ended with a soft catch. Marcus knelt beside her without waiting for permission and placed two fingers against her throat.

“Elise, can you hear me?” he asked. Her eyelids moved but didn’t open, and Marcus removed equipment from his kit. “Del, I need more light and a clean bowl of water.”

Mara blocked Del’s path to the kitchen. “What are you giving her?”

“Nothing yet,” Marcus said. “Her breathing is compromised, and I need to know why before I add another substance to her body.”

“My husband is upstairs with the same fever while all of you keep studying.” Mara’s voice cracked on the last word. “Every one of you has an answer except the one that saves him.”

Marcus looked up from Elise. He didn’t offer an apology broad enough to insult them both. “I haven’t found the answer for Denny yet. I may still be able to save your daughter, but I need you to let me work.”

Mara’s hands dropped to her sides. Del went past her into the kitchen and returned with the bowl, a lamp, and the cleanest cloth she could find. She positioned the light while Marcus listened to Elise’s chest.

The girl seized before he finished. Her spine arched, one heel striking the floor as her hands clawed at the quilts. Mara screamed and lunged forward, but Del caught her around the waist while Marcus rolled Elise onto her side.

“Keep her away from the hearth,” he ordered. He wedged a folded blanket behind Elise’s back and protected her head until the convulsions ended. “Don’t put anything in her mouth. Let it pass.”

The seizure lasted less than a minute. It stretched longer for Del, who counted every rigid jerk of the girl’s limbs while Mara fought to reach her. When Elise finally sagged against the mattress, Marcus checked her airway and listened to her lungs again.

“The illness is moving faster,” he said. “I need blood and a tissue sample.”

Mara shook her head. “You’ll not cut her.”

“Then she may die before morning.”

The bluntness brought silence. Marcus didn’t soften the statement, but his hands were gentle as he pushed the damp hair from Elise’s forehead. He kept the grief out of his voice. It wouldn’t help the girl breathe.

“Let him,” Del told Mara. “You can blame me afterward. You can tell the entire town what I helped make, but let him do this first.”

Mara stared at her. “What you helped make?”

There was no useful lie left. Del held the woman’s gaze and gave her the truth. “My coven supplied the ingredients Arrow used. We were told they were for protection magic. I knew the quantities were wrong, and I continued filling the orders.”

Mara crossed the room so quickly that Del barely saw the slap coming. Pain flashed across her cheek, and the impact turned her head. Marcus rose in one motion, but Del lifted a hand before he could step between them.

“You’re killing Denny,” Mara whispered.

“Arrow is killing him,” Marcus said. “Delphine is trying to stop him.”

“She made the poison.”

“And she brought me the first samples before anyone else admitted there was a pattern.” Marcus’s voice stayed level, but there was an edge in it now. “If you need someone to hate, choose the man who designed this. Right now, your daughter needs the woman standing in front of you.”

Mara’s face folded. She covered her mouth with one hand and backed into the wall. Del didn’t touch her.

They worked for the next hour. Marcus drew blood and removed a tissue sample while Del prepared a temporary binding meant to slow the magical component. It wouldn’t cure Elise, but it might keep the working from advancing until they found something that would.

By the time they finished, Elise’s fever had dropped half a degree. Her breathing remained rough, though the catch at the end of each inhale had eased. Mara sat beside the mattress and held her daughter’s hand without looking at either of them.

Outside, darkness had settled across the road. Marcus walked beside Del until the house disappeared behind the trees, then stopped beneath an old maple whose roots had broken through the gravel. He reached into his kit and removed a clean cloth.

“Hold still,” he said.

Del let him wipe the blood from the corner of her mouth. She hadn’t noticed the split until the cloth touched it and stung. Marcus’s fingers supported her chin while he examined the swelling along her cheek. “Nothing is broken. It will bruise.”

“I’ve had worse.”

“That doesn’t make this acceptable.”