>>Drakkar
The trees around us swayed under the pounding rain, branches snapping in the wind, but I barely noticed. My arms were locked around her—around my mother—and the warmth of her blood was already seeping into my clothes, hotter than the air, hotter than my panic.
Her legs… they weren't there anymore. The torn stumps at her thighs kept spilling, and every drop that left her felt like it was taking my breath with it.
"Hold on—" My voice cracked. I tightened my grip, as if that alone could keep her from slipping away. "I can get a healing stone—just hold on, please."
She shifted slightly, weakly, her head pressing against my chest. "No magic stone will work for me now," she whispered, the words barely reaching me over the sound of the rain.
"Yes it will, I'll find one, I'll—" My voice trembled. "I'll get Aelin, she can heal you—"
But she let out a faint scoff, bitter and knowing. "No," She was against the idea, "I don't want to live a life rotting in that tower again."
