Stella
I dropped to my knees next to Fernando’s still body and pressed my ear to his sternum. No heartbeat. His chest didn’t rise and fall. Red, blistered burns covered his eyes and forehead, extending into his hairline and down his cheeks.
“Is he dead?” the princess cried.
Her words tumbled into my ears, escaping comprehension. Nothing mattered but him. My fingers twitched with the urge to fill him with healing light. Maybe I could still save him. I had to try.
His blood seeped through my dress, dampening my knees.
My vision blurred, but I gripped his embroidered tunic and tore it in half, exposing his fatal wounds.
Please live. I begged.
I lowered my palms on each side of his chest and called up my magic, hurling it into him without restraint. Sounds filled the cramped space, but I focused on the prince, pouring my essence into him as tears choked me.
Come back to me, my soul screamed.
Green and gold penetrated his heart, and its rhythmic thumping restarted. The wounds began closing, knitting skin, muscle, and organs together. Blood regenerated at my command, refilling his veins. The blisters on his face broke, leaking fluid onto the floor. But the flesh healed beneath them. His eyelids reformed with stretched pink scars.
My body trembled as I gave every last scrap of magic to him.
He gasped through bloody lips and those beautiful green eyes fluttered open and focused on me. The healing slowed and wisps of light rose from him like evaporating steam.
“Fernando,” I whispered.
Prince Fernando
Stella collapsed over me. Diedre stood, wringing her hands and weeping. Several guards watched like dumbstruck idiots.
I wheezed, trying to recollect what happened. My blurry vision cleared as I blinked multiple times. The pain from the scalding water and the assassin’s dagger were fresh in my mind. But my eyes no longer burned, and the agony of gaping stab wounds didn’t torture me. A sniffle caught my attention, even as I wondered why the woman I loved was draped over me. What was she doing?
I sat up and she rolled off of me. Crimson stained her dress, arms, fingers, her right cheek, everywhere. She was unconscious, though her skin appeared ashy wherever the blood wasn’t.
“What happened?” I croaked.
“You were dead,” Diedre said through trembling lips, then pointed at the limp healer in my grasp. “She pulled you back.”
My gaze widened at her words. I pawed at Stella’s neck, fear racing through me at how cold she was. Did she exchange her life for mine? Only when my fingers caught a quivering pulse did I let myself breathe.
“She’s alive,” I rasped.
Tears dripped from Diedre’s chin as I stifled my own.
Rocco entered my study and evaluated the scene in seconds. He pointed to each guard. “You. Fetch the physician. You two, take Princess Diedre to her rooms with her handmaidens. Protect them with your lives. Enzo, inform the king at once.”
The men scuttled away, taking my future wife with them.
My throat tightened as Rocco bent one knee and lifted Stella’s limp form out of my hold.
“Please come, Your Highness. Or are you still injured?”
I patted my stained clothes, but only scars met my probing fingers. The magnitude of what she did overwhelmed me. How did she survive this? The last healer perished over something much less severe. Confusion clouded my thoughts only for a realization to take root.
She saved me. And I love her.
Diedre
My intended husband’s lifeless, mangled body seared itself into my brain. The two guards accompanied me, but I barely shuffled forward. The villa exploded with the clatter of armored feet, shouts, and other noises I couldn’t process.
“Princess!”
I glanced up. “Prince Lorenzo,” I said shakily.
“I’ve just been informed. Are you alright?”
All the tears I tried to hold back gushed out. Sobs racked my body, and I covered my face with my hands. I didn’t care if my reaction was immature or weak. It hurt too much.
A gentle hand rested on my shoulder. “You’re safe now,” he said.
“Diedre!”
Soft arms wrapped around me, and I melted into my dear friend Paisley, one of my handmaidens.
“By the deities, my love, you’re shaking! Come. Anya and Sloane are waiting in your suite. We are never letting you out of our sight again.”
She led me to my rooms while the guards followed closely with their palms on their swords.
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