To say the morning was a struggle was an understatement. I’d woken up before Slade. Our hands were clasped firmly together, and I carefully tugged mine free before heading to the bathroom to get ready for another day. I was halfway through my shower when the mark on my side burned with a new life, and I dug my nails into the shower stall as I bit down hard on my loofa to stop from crying out. As the pain ebbed, my legs shaking, I had to stay in there a lot longer to make sure I wouldn’t fall over the second I stepped out.
But then I saw my face in the mirror and realized there’d be no hiding what was happening to me, at least not for much longer. There were bags under my eyes, and my skin was flushed. I felt hot, too, burning with a fever. My hand shook as I raised it to my cheek and I quickly curled my fingers into a fist when the door opened, and Amelie strolled in.
“Everest? Are you sick?” she asked, rushing to my side. “You look like you’re coming down with something.”
“No, really, I used too much power yesterday. Think it just hit me hard,” I assured her.
“Still, I think you should let your mom check you out, maybe give you something.”
“I’ll talk to her, promise.” I smiled brightly.
She continued to purse her lips before shrugging and ducking into one of the shower stalls.
“You going to the meeting this morning?” she asked loudly over the running shower water.
“If Slade wants me there, yeah, I’m going.”
“Should be interesting.”
“Interesting, good choice of words for a meeting where I guarantee there’s going to be at least one fight.”
I braided my hair and flung it over my shoulder. I told Amelie I’d see her later and went to find my boots and black, leather jacket to tug on over my black sweater and tactical pants. At least I got to dress like a badass here. I wondered what my other self would think of me now. The self that worked as a janitor in a museum and thought she’d never amount to anything.
“And look at where you are now,” I whispered to myself as I tugged on another boot and laced it up. “You’re a Descendant fighting in a war, and in love with someone who is essentially a king. Yeah, think you’re doing pretty good, Everest.”
“I’d have to agree,” Slade said behind me, and I grinned wider. “You almost ready?”
“Yep, we’re good to go… what?”
He came around my cot to stand in front of my, and immediately his brow wrinkled with worry lines. “Maybe you should stay behind and get some rest.”
“What? No, I’m going with you.”
“You sure you’re feeling up to it?”
I straightened after I got my second boot on and hated when his gaze shot to my wobbly knees. I locked them and threw my shoulders back. “I’m good. We going to see the leaders or what?”
He nodded and motioned for me to lead the way. I took two steps, and the room spun around me. Slade caught me right before I face-planted and then I was lying back on my cot as he pressed his hand to my forehead.
“Benji, fetch Mahlia would you?” he looked behind him at the boy he saved from Radnak.
He’d become Slade’s unofficial sidekick, and if I’d felt better, I would’ve grinned, cracking a joke about him having a Robin to his brooding Batman. But all I wanted to do at that moment was lie there and not move for a few hours, or days.
But I was stronger than this. I started to sit up, but Slade pushed my shoulders back down.
“I haven’t eaten anything today, that’s all. We’ll grab some breakfast, and I’ll be perfect.”
“You’ve been like this for days. It has nothing to do with food,” he scolded.
“Don’t take that tone with me,” I snapped, feeling a strange anger rise up in me that felt foreign. “I can take care of myself just fine. Back off.”
His eyes narrowed, and I let my head fall back to the pillow. What the hell was wrong with me? I swallowed but coughed harshly when a sudden lump formed in my throat.
I was gasping for air, and the mark on my side throbbed, pulsing in time with my heartbeat. It was draining me of life, I knew it, but even as a voice inside my head screamed at me to let Slade know, another, fiercer one cut it off and said there was nothing he could do. It would only distract him, and I couldn’t let him be distracted not now.
I’m going to die, was all I could keep thinking as Slade held my hand and started yelling for Mahlia. I wanted to tell him I’d be fine but couldn’t get the lie out this time.
You will not die, Everest, we will not let you, a voice that had been with me for the past few days now told me sternly. But we cannot stop this, not yet.
I wanted to scream at it to do something, but I was too weak to do anything but lie there.
“Everest?” Mom was by my side now, feeling my forehead. “She has a fever. It could be a bug, or it could be from her powers advancing too quickly. I’ll give her a sedative to calm her, and so she can get some restful sleep, and a potion to bring down her fever.”
“Why didn’t you tell me you were this sick?” Slade demanded as Mom went to work.
“Didn’t want you to worry,” I admitted. “It’s nothing.”
I felt his growl vibrate through our connected hands. He smoothed my hair back from my forehead then cursed when I started to shiver from the intensity of the fever. My teeth chattered, and he tugged the blanket up around me. He moved to take off my boots for me and helped me sit up, so Mom could get a potion down my throat. It tasted vile, and I gagged on it but kept it down.
Slade slipped off my jacket, too and gave me another pillow to prop me up.
“I’ll stay with her,” Mom promised Slade when Jenny called out to him. “Go.”
“If anything changes, you send someone for me,” he ordered. “Benji, I want you to stay by her side, too. Got it?”
Benji obediently hopped up onto the cot beside mine, and I grinned at the kid. He was like a mini Slade and having him around cheered up a lot of people. He was good at cheering people up, and he patted my shoulder warmly as if to say everything would be alright.
If only it was that easy.
“I’ll be back as quick as I can,” Slade whispered to me then kissed my forehead. “You’re going to be fine.”
I nodded, but then Mom was giving me something else to drink, and it washed through my veins, warming me until all I wanted to do was close my eyes and sleep.
My body stopped shivering, and every muscle relaxed.
I felt another blanket being added to my body and heard Mom tell Benji she’d be back soon enough to check on me.
Shortly, the only sound I heard was Slade’s voice in my head and felt his lips on mine as I dreamt of happier days.
I dreamt of a world where neither one of us had to die to save the other.