Chapter 459
Four hundred and saty ono
+15 Bonus
Four hundred and sixty one
Alexander POV
My body felt like it was buried under wet concrete and refused to answer the signals my brain tried to send. A metallic taste coated my tongue. Thated it. It seemed to leech into my blood, leaving a burn in the back of my throat.
I tried to lift my right arm, but it was dead weight, completely unresponsive against the mattress.
Panic spiked through my chest. I forced my attention downward, shifting my left hand instead. My fingers twitched, catching on the hospital sheets.
I forced my eyelids open. The harshness of the fluorescent lights stabbed at my eyes, causing me to wince.
A sweet scent, one I’d recognize even if I were thrown into the darkest pits, hit me.
My mate.
Emma was slumped over the edge of the mattress, her forehead resting near my hand. Seeing her in that uncomfortable position made my heart flutter and made me wonder how long we had been here.
Hours? Days at most?
My fingers brushed against the loose strands of her hair. She stirred, making me instantly regret waking her. Her head jerked up, and when her eyes locked onto mine, all the color drained from her face.
A scream ripped out of her throat. Before I could even rasp a word, her eyes rolled back, and she collapsed
backward.
The door banged open. Lucas bolted into the room, his boots slamming against the floor, and caught Emma before she hit the ground.
“Get the doctor!” Lucas yelled over his shoulder, lowering Emma onto a chair near the wall.
Cherry pushed past him, her face soaked in fresh tears. She dropped to her knees beside my bed, grabbing my working left hand and pressing it hard against her cheek. She made a ragged, sobbing sound, burying her face in my palm.
“Hey,” I rasped out, my voice sounding like gravel grinding together. “Stop crying, Cherry p>
She let out a broken laugh, her eyes making me wonder about the amount of stress I must have caused them.
Not long after, Emma blinked open, rubbing her forehead. The nurse gave her a glass of water, but she barely drank it. She pushed herself up and scrambled back to the side of my bed. She grabbed my hand with both of hers, her eyes swimming with tears.
“You’re awake,” she whispered, her voice shaking. “Oh God, you’re actually awake p>
“I’m here,” I rasped, swallowing against the dryness in my throat. “Don’t cry p>
When she pulled away, a flash of guilt crossed her eyes, and I frowned, wondering if I was carrying anything contagious.
“I have to protect the baby,” she said in a voice barely above a whisper.
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fout huboredana saty one
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I wanted to sit up, but my chest tightened. I could feel the suffocating mass pressing against my ribs. That damned curse I’d carried for years was squeezing the life out of me
Lucas helped me lift my head and added an extra pillow behind it.
“You’re safe. We’re going to do everything possible to save you,” Emma said, standing beside me. “The doctors are here, and the priestesses are working on the Meridian poison in your chest p>
I wanted to ask what a priestess was and what she meant by Meridian poison, but it was a struggle to speak. Emma excused herself to go talk to the doctor after he had checked my vitals, leaving Lucas, Cherry, and me
alone.
“What happened?” I asked, my voice strained.
Lucas told me everything, including that Zachary had crossed every line and that, last night, a nurse on the night shift had tried to pull my oxygen plug. Security had caught her before I flatlined.
Anger flared in my chest, burning away the lingering fog of the coma.
“That pig p>
“The trial is falling apart for him,” Lucas continued. “His first wife testified against him in court, but your chest is the real problem. The priestesses are here, and they need answers. They don’t know how your stepmother set this trap p>
Lucas stopped talking when Emma and the doctor returned. I suspected the doctor must have put something in my medication that made me drowsy, and I kept drifting in and out of sleep.
When I woke up, I turned my head toward the doorway. Two women stood there, watching me and talking to each other.
“Now that he’s awake, we could try the grafting to move the poison away from his heart. That would increase his chances of surviving this p>
“We need to find Elizabeth’s grave,” the other said. “That’s the fastest way to his recovery p>
The word sounded strange to me, and I didn’t understand anything. But whoever they were, if they had the power to save me, I would let them. I didn’t care about their cryptic words or whatever grave they were hunting. If digging up Elizabeth’s bones was what it took to rip this poison out of my chest and live long enough to bury Zachary myself, they could tear the earth apart.
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