Chapter 18: Traitor
Mango pressed a damp cloth to Kieran’s forehead, her fingers brushing the scorching skin.
Mango knelt down closer beside the bed, her palm hovering just above Kieran’s chest, then shifting to Autumn’s. Her fingers trembled slightly, though she willed them to stay steady. The faint golden glow pulsed between her hands, then dimmed."Still in sync," she whispered, voice tight with worry.
Dax stood at the threshold, arms folded, brows drawn in a deep line. His gaze flicked from Kieran’s pale face to the dark circles beneath Mango’s eyes. "Is that good or bad?"
"Their fevers aren’t breaking," Mango muttered, more to herself than to Dax, who now hovered near the doorway, unsure whether to enter or just stand there. "Their bodies are fighting it, but the demonic poison isn’t just physical, I guess. It’s in his blood. In her now, too.Its healing, then again relapsing.I am not quite sure what’s going on! "
Dax’s jaw tightened. "And the Council will smell it the second they step foot back here.Enough to play their wicked games...thing is...they don’t play fair. "
Mango did not answer. Instead, she reached into the folds of her robe and pulled out a small vial filled with a liquid so dark it seemed to swallow the light around it. She pressed it into Dax’s palm.
"Burn it all," she said, her voice low. "The battlefield. Every drop of blood, every scorched blade of grass. If there’s even a whisper of dark magic left when they return, they will use it as proof to execute him.The remnants might affect Kieran’s healing process as well...the negative energy left by the demon blade might react with the dark energy brought in by those Bloodfangs..."
Dax’s fingers closed around the vial. "What is this?"
"A cleanser. Old witch recipe. It will incinerate any residual energy...demonic or otherwise." She turned towards the door, her staff already glowing faintly in her grip.
"Where the hell are you going?" Dax blocked her path, his broad frame filling the doorway clearly worried. "You can’t just leave him like this!"
Mango’s eyes flashed. "I am not leaving him. I am trying to save him. But I can’t do it alone."