Page 120 of A Whisper of Cinders

I stand up, faintly hearing Ami call my name but there is no time for explaining. I move on auto-pilot, taking the stairs down, until I reach the railing, it’s as close as I can get without walking onto the field.

Conláed launches into the sky and is about to pass the ball down to his teammates, when a dark poisonous green lightning strikes him in the back. He curls outward, legs and arms stretched back, before he starts falling to the ground at an incredible speed.

“No!” I shout, moving before anyone else really notices what is going on. I jump high and land on the field amidst the players. I reach out my hand high above me, fully aware that if this doesn’t work, there is no way he will survive the crash.

But I have to try. When I call for my powers, they answer immediately and a protective cocoon of flame is forged around him. Someone else slows down his fall, yet when he hits the ground, I fall on my knees, unable to stay upright due to the impact of his crash.

I am with him in a heartbeat, stepping inside of my magical shield with one single thought like a mantra inside my head.

Please be alive. Please be alive. Please be alive.

“Conláed?” I whisper, falling to my knees next to him, my fingers searching for a pulse in his neck, where dark tendrils crawl up from his spine. Nothing. I feel again at his wrist, but no heartbeat to be found.

Tears well up in my eyes and I don’t even care that they fall or who might see them. A crowd gathers around us, professors run across the field, shooting magic up into the sky. But as long as I am breathing, that shield will not go down and no one shall enter.

“What do I do?” I whisper to myself, knowing deep down there is nothing to be done.

Heal him, Mailene, you have the power within you.

The voice is faint and I haven’t heard it in so long, I nearly brush it away as me going insane. But he has always been right, so why not this time?

“How do I do this?”

You know how.

That is all the help I’m going to get, so I place a hand on his heart, the other on his cheek and close my eyes, focusing all my energy on him. Nothing happens, my breathing becomes faster, panic is like a fist around my throat.

“Come on,” I whisper to myself. I dig deeper, search for the spark deep within me and feel the faintest tingling at the tip of my fingers.

But when I open my eyes and look for any sign that he is healing, I see nothing. His chest remains still, no moving eyes behind his closed lids, no twitching fingers.

No heartbeat.

Nothing.

A faint golden line shimmers between us and I watch as it starts to fade, the cord growing shorter until it touches my heart and a pulse makes my body twitch

I rest my forehead against his, and a cry escapes me as I inhale his smokey scent. I close my eyes. “I am so, so sorry Conláed, I…”

I don’t even know what to say, but the hollow feeling in my chest speaks a thousand words. I just lost a part of me, a part that I didn’t even know I had.

And as my lip trembles, the tears roll down my cheeks, the flame inside me extinguishes and all there is left is a coldness I’ll never recover from.

Tu-dum, tu-dum.

Tu-dum, tu-dum.

Tu-dum.

No.

From my heart, an inferno ignites, spreading through my veins and turning my blood into pure golden wildfire. I raise myself until there are only mere inches between us and place my hands on his cheeks. “Come back to me,” I whisper and send my firestorm into him.

I chase away the cold and darkness that was already spreading within him, replacing it with flames, burning away the poison that wraps around him like ivy.

I barely notice it when hands clasp around my wrists, but when those same hands cup my cheeks, I snap out of my trance.

The energy that hums through me goes silent and I release Conláed’s cheeks, moving away from his hold and cover my mouth with my hand. I shake uncontrollably, unable to look away from a now very alive Conláed.