The Heartstone Saga, Archibald Bradford [the snowy day read aloud TXT] 📗

him again as she cast aside the empty syringe and began to pound her fist into his chest.

It was horrible to watch, and it broke the hearts of the already heart-broken widows.

“YOU DON’T GET TO DIE!” She shrieked at him again, more out of control than ever.

And evidently he heard her, because a moment later his head lolled to one side and he let out a weak cough.

The movement was slight, so slight that some of them missed it, but Volka hadn’t.

“Impossible!” The Valkyrie exclaimed with mouth agape.

Picking up on the shift in her attitude, the other girls stared with naked hope at Nameless, though tears still stained their cheeks.

This time when he coughed they all saw it and exclamations of shock and joy came from all around him.

“Nameless! Can you hear me, my darling?!” Ophelia cried out after she brought her fist down on his chest one final time.

“Whozzat stop hittin’ me.” He slurred out, his hands rising limply out of the mud to fend her off, his eyes still closed.

The girls gasped at the sound of his voice, their relief palpable.

“Beloved? Speak to me!” Escrya urged.

“‘Scrya? What…” He coughed again, with more energy this time; “Chest hurts.”

The wave of relief that went through his bond-mates likewise went through the watching Undines, who began chattering at each other in excitement.

Seeing that he was alive, Miranda took a second to experience some of that relief herself, before turning on the spectating crowd, her priorities taking over.

“What the hell are you all standing around for?! We got wounded on the field! Triage protocol! Now!” The authoritative woman barked; “Show’s over, the kid is alive so get your asses in gear!”

As much as she wanted to scoop Nameless out of the mud herself, she had a job to do.

Though she wasn’t stupid enough to try to order any of his bond-mates to leave his side.

While the others carefully helped Ophelia load her husband onto a stretcher, Volka stayed on her knees in the mud, stricken.

“Volka?” Milly asked.

Concerned for the Valkyrie, she turned away from their bond-mate as Escrya, Nina and the others took him towards one of the hastily erected medical tents.

“I-” The Valkyrie looked to the Minotaur and slowly shook her head in wonder; “I was certain that I had killed him.”

The Minotaur reached down and helped her to her feet, then pulled her into a hug.

“I think maybe you did.” She replied with a worried frown; “I... I don’t feel him anymore, not like we did before.”

Volka nodded as they caught up to the others.

“That is because the divine essence has been scoured from his soul. He isn’t an Empath anymore.”

“He’s also probably blind.” Ophelia spat at her, her bitterness hard to contain.

While Nina and Escrya carried his stretcher, she’d taken a moment to flash a light into his eyes, only to find them cloudy and grey, barely a hint of his original muddy brown colour remaining.

The Valkyrie flinched back as if the Flutterby had thrown acid on her, but she recovered quickly as concern rose within her.

“Blind? You are certain?”

The Flutterby rounded on her and she drew back again.

“Of course I am certain you dolt! Just as I was certain that he needed help and you just… you were just sitting there!”

Of all of the emotional pains that Volka had experienced in her life, being cursed out by the kindly Ophelia was amongst the worst.

As a Valkyrie she had an infinite capacity to bear such pain, but she still felt it keenly.

Especially since the Flutterby was absolutely right: she had been so convinced of the scope of their bond-mate’s sacrifice that her inaction very nearly brought it about.

Heedless of the Dominar’s pain the sun burned through the last of the Undines’ clouds, and it was much like the first dawn for the former Tenebrae as all over the field their eyes began to open from the nightmare they had been subjected to.

They remembered their lives, their loves, and everything that they ought to remember.

But they also remembered him: the one who called out to them in the dark, who showed them naught but selfless love, and endured their pain thousands of times over to spare them from it.

And they loved him.

Chapter 54:The Ripple Effect

Olena looked over the seven bleary eyed Ogres, sitting in confusion in a strand of trees at the edge of the battlefield where she had kept them trapped with her magic.

“Where am we?” One of the big girls asked fearfully.

The Witch drew in a deep, deep, breath and spoke with a heavy sigh of relief.

“Awake. At last.”

Glad she was that the Undines’ rain reached their heartstones and that Nameless’s soul had found them.

She was tired from holding them with her magic for so long, but her weariness was inconsequential; none of the blue-skinned giants saw when she slipped her largest bone needle back into her shawl, nor could they conceive of just how relieved she was not to have been forced to use it.

A Gigas was one thing, but the Witch had strength enough to pierce the jugular of an Ogre if needed.

It would have taken two arms and all of her weight, but it was doable.

Whether she had the strength of will to do it seven times though...

She pulled her shawl close as she shuddered from the thought.

“The Aegis is there. Just through those trees. Go. They will look after you.”

The Ogres turned and left, though the first one to speak looked back at the Witch and smiled uncertainly.

“Thanks for help us?”

Based on her speech she was clearly on the younger side amongst the surviving giants.

Olena slowly shook her head, though she smiled a genuine smile at the innocent girl.