Chapter 334
Ellie’s POV
I couldn’t move.
My mother was on the ground with a lake of blood pooling beneath her, and all I could do was fucking stand there and stare.
Dominic’s grip on my arm vanished. He shifted mid-stride and launched himself at Gareth, who did the same. The two collided in the air, fur and flesh and snarls filling the clearing as they tumbled to the ground together several feet away.
I snapped back into action and rushed over, dropping to my knees beside my mother.
“Mom,” I said. “I’m here. I’m gonna cure you, okay? You’re not gonna die”
She looked up at me with wide eyes.
I bit my lip, my mind scrambling to come up with something. Her hands were pressed against her throat, but it was useless to stop the blood that was pouring through her fingers. I pressed my hands over hers, trying to help staunch it. The blood was warm and sticky, coating my palms and turning my skin too slick to hold on properly.
Goddess, it wouldn’t stop. No matter how hard I pressed, it just kept coming and coming, like a dam had burst in her throat and everything was coming out at once.
“No, no, no,” I whispered. “Please. Please don’t do this.”
Behind me, Dominic and Gareth were tearing each other apart. I heard teeth snapping, claws ripping through flesh, the heavy thud of bodies hitting the ground. But I couldn’t look. Right now, I couldn’t think about anything except my mother.
I shut my eyes and tried to summon that pull, that strange sixth sense that had saved me before. The one that led me to rare plants, to impossible cures.
Nothing happened.
I squeezed my eyes tighter and focused harder, willing it to work. There had to be something out here. Some plant that could stop the bleeding, that could seal the wound, that could save her just as it had healed my broken leg.
But all I felt was the warmth of too much blood between my fingers and my mother’s body jerking against my knee.
Finally, my mother’s hands went slack beneath mine. I opened my eyes and looked down at her.
Her chest was still moving, but just barely. Shallow, shuddering breaths that grew further and further apart. Her hands dropped to the ground, and she looked up at me with a knowing gaze that seemed to say nothing and everything all at once.
“Mom,” I said. “Stay with me. Please. Just stay with me.
“E… Ell…ie…”
244
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“I’m here,” I said. Tears were streaming down my face now, dripping onto her nightgown. I cupped her face and smoothed my thumbs over her cheekbones and leaned down, pressing my forehead to hers. “I’m right here.”
I could have sworn she tried to smile. Her fingers laced through mine, slick with blood. She gave me one last squeeze and her eyes fluttered shut.
And then her chest stopped moving.
“No,” I said, sitting up. “No, no, no. Mom. Mom, wake up.”
I shook her gently. Then harder, patting her cheeks, willing her to blink, to breathe, to do something.
“Wake up. Please. You have to wake up.
Her head lolled to the side, unresponsive.
“Mom!” I cried.
I pulled her into my arms and held her against my chest, rocking back and forth. Her body was limp and heavy, already starting to cool.
This wasn’t happening. This couldn’t be happening.
Not again.
I’d watched her die once before. In my past life, I had stood idly by while they executed her for a crime she didn’t commit, and I’d been too weak and too powerless to stop it.
I’d promised myself it wouldn’t happen again. I’d sworn I would save her this time. And I had once. Just
once.
But I hadn’t saved her this time.
In the end, I had failed.
History had repeated itself, just as it always found a way to do in this timeline despite my best efforts to stop it from happening. Perhaps in different flavors, but it all came out the same in the end. Bitter and full of blood and regret.
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