“Ari, it’s okay.” Trace’s words finally came into focus, the muffled sound fading. “You got him!”
I looked up, blinking away the stars in my vision and finally seeing Lachlan’s body on the ground several yards away.
Fuck. It was a good godsdamn thing Trace had told me my spell had worked. Otherwise, I might’ve passed out for real. Lach looked like he was fucking dead.
The three of us raced toward him, our strides eating up the ground. As I approached, my heart pounded hard in my chest, and came to a stop next to the Irishman’s prone form. I put my hand out, stopping Merrick from reaching out and grabbing him.
“He’s hurt. Shit, he’s very hurt. He’s still alive though.”
Trace bent down next to me and used magic to scan Lachlan’s body. “Dammit. I think your magic definitely saved him, but he’s in rough shape. Between the fall and whatever the bird did to him when it attacked, he’s going to need something, anything that will help his healing accelerate. Otherwise…”
When he paused, my stomach clenched so hard I felt like I might barf up everything I’d ever eaten.
“Say it,” I grated.
Trace swallowed hard, his blue eyes glinting. “If we don’t find something, Lachlan will die.”
My jaw tightened. Trace and I locked gazes for a moment, and I could feel the shared fear that traveled between us like an electric current. Lach was important to both of us. To all of us.
We were a team. A group. A partnership. And it wouldn’t work if we were missing a piece.
Merrick snapped his fingers, drawing my attention. When I turned to him, he was glancing at the forest around us. “There are packs. Packs that have supplies in them, and useful charms hidden throughout the course for the Gods’ Challenge. Pretty sure if we search, we’ll be able to find something that can help, something like a healing potion. Like last semester.”
Standing up, I nodded, forcing my fear down. Fear wouldn’t help Lachlan. Action would.
“Trace, can you create something that will help us carry him?”
The dark-haired man nodded, standing up and rubbing his hands together. He sent out a slow stream of energy that wrapped itself around Lachlan’s torn and shattered body. It cradled him gently, lifting him up into the air.
“We should be able to move him this way,” he said quietly. “We’ll be able to move quicker and protect him better. I’ll only be able to hold this magic for an hour or two, and then someone else will have to take over so I can recharge.”
Merrick and I both nodded. We headed deeper into the forest, not really caring where the rest of the students had gone. We searched high and low, hunting for anything that could save Lachlan’s life. Most of the time, he was unconscious, and as worried as I was, I was almost glad for it. I could tell he was in an immense amount of pain, but I wasn’t even sure that he was conscious enough to understand it.
We searched for hours, combing through every inch of the forest around us as the sun sank beneath the horizon, moving out into the desert and then back into the woods again. All of us were dead on our feet, but Merrick and I traded off with Trace, creating spells that would help protect Lachlan as we carried him with us.
Frustrated, I cut through a bunch of moving vines and grunted, screaming my rage at them as they retracted. Behind me, Lachlan groaned. I turned around and pressed my hand to his forehead. “I know, I know, Lach. I just need you to hang on a little bit longer. I know we’re so close to finding what you need.”
Trace came to stand next to me, his body tense. “How’s he doing?”
I shook my head, blinking back the tears that stung my eyes. “I don’t see him surviving much longer. We need to find something, and we need to do it fucking fast.”
“Here. Finally. Here!” Merrick’s excited cry drew our attention, and he emerged from the underbrush a second later. He had a large pack slung over his back, and as soon as he reached us, he handed over a small blue packet with three vials inside. “I knew it as soon as I saw it. It’s a healing potion.”
My eyes went wide, and I smiled at Merrick as I took the packet, disbelief and happiness making my blood pump faster. I looked to Trace, and he squinted slightly as he considered. “Yeah, Merrick’s right. You have to give him all three, starting with the green, the red, and then the yellow. This is one of the best healing potions there is.”
We laid Lach down gently on the forest bed and unwrapped him from the magic that had been holding him in the air. I winced at just how black and blue and bloody his body really was. Trace tilted his head back as I administered each bottle to him, making sure that he swallowed before moving on to the next.
When it was done, we all grew still, our focus entirely on Lachlan.
Thank fuck for magic.
There were still days when I resented this “gift” the gods had foisted on me, but at the moment, I was more grateful to magic than I could say. Because it was saving Lach’s life.
It was amazing. As soon as the potion hit his system, he began to heal. Color came back to his cheeks, replacing the dull sallowness, and the black and blue bruises started to fade.
All three of us settled in around him and watched every second of his crawl back to life. It took over an hour, which let me know how bad his injuries really had been. When his body no longer looked ragged and twisted, when the bones looked to be reconnected, and whatever bleeding was happening on the inside no longer showed through bruises and cuts, he began to regain consciousness.
All three of us scooted closer to him, and I grabbed his hand. “Lach? Can you hear me?”