bride of vengeance
I stayed close, refusing to let anyone push me back, my hand still pressed against his chest where I could feel his heart racing too fast, then too slow, then too fast again.
The healers arrived within minutes, three of them, older men and women who moved with the calm of people who had seen every kind of injury this kingdom could produce. That calm didn't last long. The moment they got a proper look at the wound on his shoulder, their faces changed.
"This isn't a normal claw mark," one of them muttered, more to herself than to anyone else.
They tried everything. Salves. Tonics. A paste made from crushed silverleaf that I watched them apply with shaking hands. Nothing slowed the fever climbi