Chapter 242: The Vanishing Light
Natalie~
I was burning out.
I pressed my hands to his chest again, fingers trembling. Warm, golden light poured from my palms into Zane’s body—liquid bright, divine and radiant—but still, I felt it.
The decay.
It was like pouring sunlight into a well with no bottom.
It worked. For a while.
Until it didn’t..
I would cradle Zane’s fevered head in my lap, whispering encouragements that trembled at the edges with fear. His skin would glow beneath my touch, the gray fading from his cheeks, strength returning to his limbs. He’d open his eyes—those deep, unreadable oceans—and smile softly.
But I knew the drill by now.
By morning, the shadows would come creeping back in, like moss swallowing a statue, slow and inevitable. Like death curling its fingers around something that should’ve been eternal. He’d wake up screaming.
"Don’t say anything," Zane had said one night, after I’d found him doubled over behind the throne room, biting down on his wrist to keep from groaning out loud. "Not to my father. Not to Alex. Not to anyone."