Page 23 of A Trial By Blood

“She could’ve been killed. What the hell were you thinking!” Magnolia cried, swiping a tear from her cheek.

I shook my head. “I was there. I protected her from the demons. I did what she asked. Her request made sense. It was logical. She’s dying. She wanted to help. She didn’t want the mother to punish your coven. It was the right thing to do. She—”

“Logic?” Magnolia spat.

Daisy wasn’t looking at me. She was weeping, clinging to Rose. “She’s so cold,” she whispered.

“You don’t get it, Ronan, and you never will because you’re made of fucking stone. Rose means more to us than magic, than power. I don’t care about any of it. I’d give it all up to prevent her from feeling one more moment of pain. And you…you took her out into the freezing night. You let her lay there naked, afraid, alone. You let the mother bite her when there’s barely anything of her, and now she’ll blame herself even more when the mother takes our gifts away from us.”

I looked down at Rose. I had done that, hadn’t I? All the things that Magnolia said. I rubbed my temples again, the pain behind my eyes worsening. I’d hurt her. I’d hurt Rose. “I never meant to cause her pain.”

“She won’t survive this,” Daisy said, tears streaming down her face. “I thought I had a little more time. A few more days, at least.” She sobbed.

“Just…leave, Ronan,” Magnolia said, and turned her back on me, climbing up onto the bed beside her sister.

Bram moved in. I inclined my head before he reached for me and strode out, down the stairs, and out into the snow. Bram shut the door behind me.

I should do as they asked. I should leave, stay away. But I couldn’t do it. I didn’t know how to describe it. It was as if she were the sun and I was a planet, ever moving around her, trying to get closer but not knowing how. Even when I was right beside her, it never felt close enough. I wasn’t sure why, only that I felt a pull toward her. I lifted my block and walked back in, following Bram up the stairs and into Rose’s room.

Then I stood across from her bed, because I couldn’t leave her.

Every instinct told me this was where I needed to be.

* * *

The rest of the family arrived within the hour. Iris and her mate, Draven. Willow and Warrick, Ren, her familiar, with them. Arthur, Daisy’s familiar and boyfriend, was there comforting her. Magnolia and Bram hadn’t left the room once. And Else was limping in and out of the room with all manner of lotions and potions, trying to feed Rose elixirs and covering her in foul smelling poultices.

Several hours had passed and Rose still hadn’t woken up. I was tuned into Rose in a way I never had been before. When I walked into a room, I could hear every breath and every heartbeat of the people around me, but it was different with Rose. My heart no longer beat, it had stopped a long time ago, but I felt Rose’s heart inside me, as if it were part of me, and it had been growing weaker by the hour.

She was dying.

This wasn’t what Rose wanted, how she wanted it to happen.

Taking her out in the cold, what the mother had done to her, it was going to kill her.

And Magnolia was right. I had caused this.

CHAPTER 8

Ronan

Morning arrived, Rose’s room filled with sunlight, and still, she didn’t wake.

Else and Magnolia were rushing between Else’s work room and Rose’s bedside, still trying different concoctions. But nothing was working. Daisy had stayed at Rose’s side, holding her hand, talking to her unresponsive daughter and weeping. Willow paced, and Iris sat on the floor with a pile of spell and history books, searching for anything that could help her sister. Books that I knew she’d looked through many times before, searching for something that didn’t exist.

Willow wasn’t the only one who paced. I couldn’t sit still. I could do nothing, and with every second that ticked by, I grew more and more restless.

“Has Warrick had any luck finding Vesa? Any sign of him at all?” Daisy asked.

Willow turned to her mother. “Nothing. And if anyone can find Rose’s father it’s him. But we don’t have anything with Vesa’s scent, and Rose’s is obviously too different because it’s not working.”

“I know it’s a long shot. But we’ve exhausted everything else. I didn’t go looking for him when he left because I was glad to see the back of the man, but now…” She swallowed. “What if he could’ve helped? What if there was something in his family history that caused this?”

“What could a human have that could do this? We’ve tried human medicine, none of it worked. It’s not your fault, Mom.” Willow closed the space between her and Daisy and crouched down beside her. “Don’t go there. We’ve tried for years to find Vesa. You did all you could, and honestly, I don’t think he could help even if we had found him. He’s just a human.”

I looked at Rose. Warrick needed a scent to hunt. I needed blood. Her father’s DNA flowed through her veins. I could track him, I just needed a taste. One taste of her blood, and maybe I could find the human who’d fathered Rose. Willow was right, it was a long shot, but there was still a chance he could help.

I needed to be alone with Rose, and it needed to happen now.