Mathieu (White Flame Trilogy) - By Paula Flumerfelt Page 0,106

was tight with stress again, eyes locked on the naked boy who looked like a fish out of water. The boy curled around himself, hiding his nudity, mouth gaping wordlessly. Mathieu looked down, too.

“Mathieu, you can explain…this later. Right now, we have something bigger to deal with than your stupidity.” Solomon said shortly.

Holding the baby Shadowrider to his chest protectively, he sat up. “What’s wrong?”

“Nathan is fading. Quickly.”

That was all that needed to be said to have him on his feet, running down the stairs. He hooked a left into the redhead’s room, only to see him frothing at the mouth, body arched like a bow, and his eyes rolled into the back of his head. Slowly, Nathan dropped back to the bed.

Mathieu kept his new companion tucked against him and rushed to the bed, touching the pulse in his neck. His heart rate was through the roof, and he was burning up. “Nathan? Can you hear me?”

His eyes flew open and he grabbed Mathieu’s arm in a death grip. “L-Lione?”

“What? No. It’s Mathieu. Hey, stay with me.”

“S-so….sorry…Li….” Nathan’s hand fell away and he felt the pulse under his fingers stop.

Mathieu’s eyes widen, “Nathan, no!”

Elise knocked him aside, literally, starting chest compressions immediately as tears streamed down her face. “No, come on, sweetie, come on! Wake up. Please, Nate…please…” She collapsed onto his chest, sobbing. Solomon stood beside her, rubbing her back. “D-damn it, Nate, you can’t die on me! We have so much left to do. We’re gonna free Korinth from its borders, from Unith’s oppressions…we were going to f-find your son…” She clung to his still body, hers racked with sobs.

A shiver of sadness slid down his spine and he turned away, unable to watch. Elise’s cries echoed through him, tearing at him from inside. The warmth against his chest stretched its little nose up, eyes blinking comforting at him. “Thanks.” He leaned down and kissed its nose, cradling it lovingly. Looking back over his shoulder at a grieving Elise and a stressed Solomon, He felt Darcia’s hand on his shoulder.

There was a little gasp and he looked at the door to Adele standing there, a hand over her mouth with Josette standing just behind her.

“We’re back!” Avanon yelled, dragging Elric behind her. Their hands were clasped but not in a romantic way.

“Damn it, now tell me what’s wrong?” Elric said, trying to read the expressions of the others from afar. He wound through the house behind Avanon, stepping carefully over the broken shards of glass, and came to stop by Mathieu. The other healer was tall with sandy blond hair, thin glasses and dark blue eyes. “Tell me what happened.”

Adele made a guilty sound from where she stood in the corner of the room, Josette beside her. “I-I tried to heal him, but it went wrong…”

Elric sighed and approached the still Nathan. “Let me look.”

As he was examining the redhead, Avanon hovered beside his shoulder, hands moving nervously. “I’m sorry I couldn’t find you faster. Can you fix him?”

“Well,” Elric stood and wiped his hands on his pants, “I think that if I’d been here, maybe, but even so…Adele, I’m assuming you to tried to heal it, thinking this was naturally occurring.”

“Y-yeah…”

Elric pushed his glasses up and rubbed between his eyes. Without his glasses he looked much younger, no longer just shy of thirty, but closer to twenty-four. “This was deliberate, most likely the effects of a slow acting poison. If you’d tried to slow down his metabolism, his body might have been able to combat it.”

“So it’s her fault he’s dead!” Elise said, her face stained with tears.

Josette stepped in front of Adele protectively. “Back off, Elise. She did her best.”

“Clearly, that wasn’t enough!” The pink haired girl yelled.

Fire flickered at the raven’s fingertips, her eyes glowing. “You didn’t do anything to help! If anyone is to blame, it’s you! Why didn’t your stupid vision see this coming, huh?”

Mina, who had mostly been AWOL since returning to the Tri-District Manor, stepped between the angry woman. “Enough, Josette. Unless you’d like to find out when I really can do.” Her eyes were narrowed for a mere moment before he went to Elise, hugging her supportively.

Mathieu cleared his throat. “Okay everyone…let’s calm down. Fighting isn’t going to help anyone. If Nathan really is gone,” he looked to Elric, who nodded sadly, “then we can only move forward.” Suddenly, it seemed that he had the room’s undivided attention. “Okay…Solomon and Avanon will go inform Lenore that we need a