Kaelen looked down at the trembling fingers clutching his sleeve, then at the fractured green jade pressed against his chest.
Alchemist Linnea was shaking so violently that her teeth clicked together like loose river stones.
Her breath came in ragged, wheezing gasps, smelling of scorched sulfur and bitter heart-rotting ashes.
Across her jaw and neck, the dark purple lines of Fire-Poison Insomnia pulsed in jagged webs, threatening to burst through the skin.
“He’s been unconscious for twelve hours,” Linnea whispered, her voice cracking as tears cut clean streaks through the charcoal dust on her cheeks. “If the soul-cooling essence doesn’t bind by midnight, his core will shatter into cinder.”
Kaelen gently peeled her fingers off his sleeve.
“Sit down before you fall into the gravel,” Kaelen said mildly. “Dying on my porch is messy, and Mina just finished sweeping.”
Mina stepped up beside the girl, caught Linnea’s swaying shoulders, and guided her onto the wooden bench.
