The Healer and the General

Part 18

Eric didn't like leaving Demi when she was still angry. But he knew that she would need some space. He had paced for a while in his tent until Doyle had dragged him to a sparring ring. Only when the sun went down did his friend leave him alone. They'd gone to dinner expecting to meet their mates there, but only Eva could be seen. He was antsy. The feeling hadn't left him for the whole day, but now it was worse. He also felt incredibly tired, which could've been from sparring. Eric decided he'd just check in on Demi and then he'd be calmer and able to focus.

When Eric got to the tent he smelled sickness and blood, which wasn't abnormal, but he swore some of it smelled like a summer storm. Trying to ignore the sense of dread he had, Eric entered the tent right in time to see his mate's bloody nose.

The next moment was practically in slow motion. Demi put her finger to her nose and saw that there was blood on them, then she looked at Eric and paled, right before losing consciousness. As she fell, Eric managed to catch her before she hit the ground.

"Demi?" Eric just about yelled while shaking his mate. "Demi, can you hear me?" When she didn't respond, he had the sickening thought that she was dead. After assuring himself multiple times that her pulse was steady, weak but steady, Eric brought her to his tent. He laid her down on his bed and covered her in blankets.

Making sure she was covered head to toe, he went and stoked the fire. When all that was done, Demi was still shivering. Maybe she was sick. But the symptoms oddly reminded him of the weakened state fae went into when they used too much of their magic. But that wasn't possible since Demi had no magic.

She was incredibly pale and felt as if her body had lost all its heat. Blood continued to drip from her nose. Eric laid in the bed next to her, trying to use some of his own body heat to warm her. Demi didn't even move. And that is how they stayed.

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Three days later, Demi still hadn't woken. She no longer shivered and had also gained color back to her cheeks. Eric never strayed from her side for long, if he did at all. When something did come up Doyle and Eva would watch over her. Nobody knew what was happening to her, and nothing in her grimoire helped.

Though, in the back of the book, Eric had found a smaller notebook. It had every patient she had ever lost, what she lost them to, how she could've saved them, and the punishment received for losing them. It had made Eric sick knowing that his mate blamed herself for the deaths in here. He didn't look through all of it, but the first name was Mitera Viitor. Eric assumed that it was her mother.

He'd barely eaten or slept the past few days, and it was starting to catch up to him. He paid no heed to it as he led the patrol. The last few patrols had said they'd seen something lurking in the forest. They didn't know if it was an animal or a person, but they'd said they could feel it watching them. So Eric had taken a larger patrol out to investigate. He really didn't want to as his mind kept wandering back to Demi, however, he needed assurance that there was no threat to the camp. 

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Demi was dreaming. She knew that she was dreaming, but it was still hard to comprehend. She sat in emptiness, memories that weren't her own, not yet at least, played around her. She stood up and walked over to the one with a rushing river. She saw horses drink from it then die, and children play in it and get ill. It was much like what was happening at camp, but just without the horses.

As Demi went to touch the scene, it pulled her in. She fell into the river, and it dragged her down under the current. She couldn't breathe. Her body tried and tried to swim, but the current kept dragging her down and up over and over again. It was like the river was trying to show her something. Demi tried to relax and take deep breaths, finding that she could, in fact, breathe underwater.

The river spit her out onto land, and Demi saw a shadowy figure whisper into a strange jar and then pour its contents into the river. He walked away, returning to the cover of the forest, Demi tried to follow him, but a tunnel of thorns formed around her. She ran, trying to find her way out of the maze. Wolves followed her, they gained, but Demi needed to do something. She needed to get something to help the children.

The children! They were sick, but why? Demi ran and thought at the same time before she came to some kind of canyon. The wolves were no longer behind her. Demi looked around, she was trying to find the plant that would save the children. Where was it? Her eyes landed on a purple plant at the same moment the ground beneath her gave out, and Demi fell into a pit. She was covered in darkness, one phrase repeating over and over, "In three days time, the children will die."