“Anything you can.”
24
Cebrinne
“Don’t lie him back until his heart stops.”
Halfway through easing Pheolix down, Aegir halted at Xiane’s order.
She watched him, expression unreadable. “It will stop,” she said quietly, as though it were a simple matter of fact, then returned to her assessment of Pheolix’s skin. Naiad flesh healed rapidly, and the punctures had all closed when we’d pulled him inside the cave. But they seemed to be reopening now, black and shriveling. Caving in. The marks from the creature’s teeth ran in strange circles, and I hated to think what shape its mouth had been.
That, had fate not supplied us with Pheolix, it might have bitten Selena instead.
Xiane lifted a short blade from her belt, cutting the black tissue away. “Force it back out the way it came in and keep his circulation going in the right direction. Don’t allow his blood to clot. The venom is doing that already.”
Pheolix’s fingers flexed as she sliced into him, though he didn’t make a sound. He slumped against the wall. A pallor overshadowed his visage, made even more eerie in the blue light.
Selena glanced at his eyes, barely open and hazily aimed at the floor. Then rolled Pheolix just enough to reveal a long slash in his side.
Xiane swore under her breath. “I have his arm, you take over there. The venom spreads faster than you can drain it. It will feel like trying to empty the ocean with a bucket. What’s his name?”
Selena’s teeth cut into her lip. “Pheolix.”
“Keep breathing, Pheolix.” Xiane sent an expectant glance at me.
Was I supposed to take over encouraging him? I leaned across his torso, the black below his skin tainting his blood, and pushed it away from his lungs. It pressed back, a river raging against a tiny dam. His breathing tightened, airways narrowing, heart rate increasing.
Lub dub, lub dub, lub dub, lub dub, lub dub.
“Don’t be alarmed,” Xiane said. “He’s about to lose—”
Pheolix’s head fell limply.
“Consciousness. Pay attention to his lungs. And get ready,” she added towards Aegir.
Lubdub, Lubdub, lubdub, lubdub, lubdub.
“Stay with us, Pheolix,” Selena murmured. She gave a sharp inhale as a thin trickle of black oozed from the slash in Pheolix’s side. Xiane nodded. “Keep pressing it out.”
“There’s so much,” Selena whispered back.
Pheolix’s lungs convulsed. I paused, unsure if the jerk of his ribs came from me.
“Ready, braids?” Xiane asked.
Lubdublubdubludublubdubludub.
Aegir gave a single nod.
Lubdublubdubludublubdubludub.
Lub.
Silence.
“Squeeze his heart,” Xiane ordered. “Squeeze it now.”
Aegir’s brows pressed together in concentration. He set his fingertips against Pheolix. The drone’s chest contracted in response.
