14.

We walk through the night and into the morning. Elias doesn't wake up. Anastasia doesn't object. We don't get caught. But as the sun hovers along the horizon and waves away the night, I don't feel relieved. Anxiety creeps up my spine as we trek along the coast. The escape felt too easy.

The terrain shifts from pine trees to a type I've never seen before—wide, rubbery leaves that point to the sky. We walk on the pale sand, our footsteps washed away by the encroaching tide. Mud encrusts my skin and clothes, and Eric, Malik, Elias and I stink like a swamp. Anastasia doesn't seem to notice, but Cassia, so close to Malik, only breathes through her mouth.

It feels like an eternity before we reach the edge of the cove. The land gives way to sharp rocks that protect the cliff from the water, guarding whatever lays beyond it. Malik stops ahead, shifting Cassia in his arms so he can look at us.

"It's just around the corner. The tide is in so we'll have to climb across the rocks," he says. "Let me go first—they won't be expecting you."

"But we're safe here, right?" I ask.

His piercing gaze is oddly comforting. "Of course."

Anastasia stares up at me with wide eyes. When I notice, she drops her gaze to the ground. Her hair curls around the nape of her neck from the humidity in the early morning. I feel a heavy weight as I stare at her, of fear and something else. We said we'd let her go, we promised. And yet she knows too much for it to ever be safe. What's going to happen to her?

We climb the jagged rocks to the beach around the corner. Salt fills the air, splashing us as it smashes against the rocks. They're jagged and uneven beneath my feet, some unstable. I look to Malik and Eric, both carrying someone, and yet they still manage to make the journey more gracefully than me. Malik stops up ahead and I pause next to him, gazing at what lays around the corner.

As he said, it's a small cove, the waves crystal blue and gentle as they wade on the white sand. It's protected by cliff walls, the only entrance the rocks we just scaled. The beach is vacant except for a man, working on a wooden boat dragged onto the sand. He hasn't seen us.

"Where's the village?" I ask.

Malik smiles and nods towards the cliff face. On the far left corner, it opens into the mouth of a cave. "The village is built into the cliff face."

"Why?"

"This area is dense with hollower settlements, and this is a small village. It's mainly the elders who reside here," he explains. "The hollowers are aware there's an elder village here, but they don't dare attempt to infiltrate it. The elders are very powerful. Still, it was always safest to stay hidden."

"Let's go," Eric says. "We need to get Elias help."

We follow Malik onto the beach. The fisherman notices us and immediately takes up a fighting stance, but as we get closer, he relaxes. "Malik?" They embrace one another. "We haven't heard from you for some time. We thought something went wrong."

"I've brought the others with me," Malik says. "We've got the wisper."

The man freezes. His gaze brushes over each of us till it stops at Elias. "Come quickly, I'll find the healer."

He turns and hurries to the cave entrance. Eric nods me forward reassuringly and we follow. I shiver as we enter the cave, the blazing sun falling away. It stretches further than I imagined, and it's much larger than the cave Ana lived in, veering off into different channels.

"The infirmary?" Eric asks.

"This way." Malik leads us down one of the side paths. It narrows out till there's only room for us to walk single file, but after a few moments, it opens into a wider cavern with a small stream running through the middle. The roof is lined with lanterns, and patches of plants line the stream edge where wooden stalls are built into the walls. There are only a few people loitering around, casting us curious stares. I'm sure we look terrible, and smell even worse.

"In here," Malik says, leading us through an opening on the opposite side. This room is smaller. There's a narrow bed in the centre of the room, surrounded by a dresser with glass doors. Through the glass, I can see the medical supplies. "Lay him on the bed, the healer should be here soon."

Eric gently places him down, and my chest squeezes. When we were walking, I could distract myself from thoughts of what he endured. But staring at his body—sickly, pale, thin, littered with needle marks—it's impossible to ignore, and the guilt seeps in. Three months we thought we were suffering without him. Three months torn between hope and grief and fear. It was torturous; but what Elias endured was much much worse.

"Where is the healer?" Eric demands.

"She's coming." Malik turns to me and takes the rope from my hands. "I'll take her to the prisons. Wait here."

I turn to look at her. She looks small and timid as he steps towards her, but I grip the rope tighter. "Wait. We promise we'd let her go if she helped us."

"We can't let her go," Eric says. "She knows too much."

"He's right," Malik confirms. "If she escapes, they'll come after Elias again."

He's right, but that doesn't stop the guilt from pounding me. Because she's my age, and she helped us. But most of all, because when I look at her, I see myself, someone I used to be, someone I could have been if things were different.

"Hey." Malik puts his hand over mine on her rope, forcing me to look up at him. "It's the right thing to do, Milena. For Elias."

I look at him on the table, his body a shell of what he once was, and swallow before releasing the rope. A thick silence fills the room when Malik leaves. We all stare at Elias, troubled by our own thoughts.

Cassia breaks the silence. She's laid on the bench against the wall, still clutching her stomach. "He's going to be okay. He has to be."

Eric says nothing. A woman enters the room, her long, silky hair reaching her waist. She looks past us and straight to Elias. "This is the wisper?"

I step aside to let her past. It's strange to hear everyone refer to him as the wisper when three months ago, it was a secret only he and Eric knew. But after what happened with Charles, news spread across the land like wildfire.

"Can you help him?" I ask. She presses her hand against his chest and closes her eyes, taking a deep breath. And then turns around to pull a few materials from the cabinet behind her. She inserts a needle into his arm and extracts the blood, placing it in a test tube and turning to face the counter. I watch as the blood in the tube turns purple.

"There's a lot of silver in his system," she says, wrapping something around the needle mark. "It's lethal to his wolf genes, but thanks to his wisper blood, he's still alive. Was he awake when you found him?"

They all look at me. I shake my head. "His eyes were open, and he said a few things, but he didn't recognise me. It didn't seem like he really knew where he was."

"What'd he say to you?" Eric asks.

My stomach clenches as I meet his eye. Just let me die. "I can't remember."

"High levels of silver will kill a wolf," the healer says, fiddling through the cabinet again. "But because his wisper blood kept him alive, he's merely suffered the side effects of the silver, just without death."

I swallow. "Like what?"

"Excruciating pain, hallucinations," Eric says gruffly, "nothing pleasant."

She nods.

I don't say anything. The only thing that replays in my mind when I think of finding him are his words—the agony laced beneath them, the plea. Just let me die.

"What can we do?"

She stares at him. "We can wait. The silver will leave his system after some time, and he should wake up just fine."

"How long will that take?" Cassia asks.

"The hollowers have had him for a couple of months, right?" she asks. I nod. "Judging from the length of time it's been since his first dose, waiting for it to work will take around a month. But it's hard to know. It could be longer and it could be shorter."

"A month?" Eric gapes. "No, we can't wait that long. Can't you use infumine to extract it like we do when we get silver wounds?"

"I can try but..."

"But what?" I ask.

She meets my gaze, adjusts the collar of her shirt. "But it will be excruciatingly painful. We use infumine to cure small wounds, not long-term ones like this. There's no telling whether it will actually work."

Nobody says anything for a few moments. I stare at Eric, who stares at Elias, his brows furrowed. The silence ticks by. And then, Cassia speaks. "Do it. Elias would want you to do it."

The healer purses her lips. "I don't think you understand, there's no guarantee it will work, and it will hurt—"

"We understand just fine," Eric says. "And Elias would want you to try."

I keep my mouth shut, keep myself from chiming in because I'm torn. I'm torn between my own selfish desires and what Elias would want. On one hand, I know he'd want to wake him up as soon as we can. But on the other, I don't want to cause him anymore suffering.

"Hey," Malik appears in the doorway, "I've organised some rooms for you all to stay in. It might be best if we can clean up." I stare at him, and his smile turns to a frown. "What's wrong?"

"They want me to extract the silver from his bloodstream," the healer says.

His eyes settle with realisation. "That'll—"

"We don't have another option," Eric says. "It's final. Try it."

I bite my lip. "Eric—"

"It's what he would want, Milena. You know it's true."

The healer clears her throat. "It's probably best if you'll give us some privacy," she says. "One of you can stay, because I might need your help holding him down."

"I'll stay."

"Cassia, you need to properly rest," Eric says pointedly. "I'll stay." Cassia doesn't object and they all look at me.

"I'll show you to your room," Malik says to me, gently grabbing my elbow. "You can get cleaned up."

I want to protest. To sit by Elias' side. But I nod, because I don't want to be here to watch him suffer.

~

Discussion:

1. What would you try? Let him heal on his own or cause him extreme pain knowing it might not work?

2. What other books are you reading right now?

3. What do you think might happen next?