He gritted, “I know. Couldn’t… help it. You… hate… dying.”
She hated him dying even more. She would die a thousand deaths if it would stop this one from taking him from her.
Her eyes widened as she thought of something. Elves used blood to heal. She lifted her right hand and stared at her wrist, went to take her other hand from his to cut it and spill her blood for him, but he tightened his grip on it.
“I love you, Mackenzie,” he whispered and her heart broke as she heard the goodbye in it, a great heaving sob stealing her breath as her gaze whipped to him, her wrist forgotten.
He stared at her.
“I love you, too,” she said, but he didn’t respond, just kept staring at her.
Through her.
“No. No… no… no!” She shook her head as his hand went lax in hers, tried to make his fingers grip it again, and when they didn’t, she threw her head back and screamed until her lungs burned, until fire chased over her skin.
“Mac,” Syn called, her voice a distant wobble as the fire grew hotter.
Mackenzie looked down at Hartt, frowned at the golden light that warmed his skin and immediately pulled back on her fire, fear of hurting him swift to bring it back under control.
She sank against him, held him and silently pleaded him to come back to her.
She needed him.
She rocked against him as she sobbed, as grief tried to consume her and unleash her phoenix side. She didn’t hear the others as they spoke to her, as someone touched her back. He couldn’t be gone. He just couldn’t be.
Her eyes widened as she remembered Rosalind’s garden and how Vail had healed the tree, reversing the damage he had done to it.
She lifted her head, knew how desperate she looked as she locked gazes with him, as his black eyebrows furrowed and sorrow shone in his violet eyes. “You can heal him. You can bring him back. You have to bring him back!”
“Mackenzie, I—” Rosalind started, but cut herself off when Vail moved to stand beside Hartt and dropped to his knees.
He held his hands out over Hartt’s chest and she moved back to make room for him, keeping hold of Hartt’s hand. She sniffled as Vail closed his eyes, as he drew a deep breath and pressed his hands to Hartt’s chest above his heart. This had to work.
Agonising seconds trickled past, the tension cranking tighter inside her, the hope she had felt bleeding from her. She jerked her shoulder backwards when Syn touched it, unleashed a vicious snarling hiss to warn her away. This wasn’t over. Vail could bring Hartt back to her. She believed that.
Vail lifted his hands from Hartt’s chest and she looked at her mate’s face, waited for him to move.
When he didn’t, the fire blazed through her again, burning hotter, and she glared at Vail.
“Mackenzie… I am sorry.” Vail flicked a pained glance at Hartt.
The grief that filled his eyes flooded her as she realised what he was saying, as she refused to believe it.
“No. You have to bring him back. You can bring him back.” She practically growled the words at him as her heart broke all over again.
Tears lined Vail’s black lashes as he shook his head. “I tried. I should be able to… but nature… she refuses to give her power to me.”
He snarled those last eight words, his face twisting in black lines as his eyes rapidly darkened, as the pain she could see in them morphed to rage, to frustration. Rosalind touched his shoulder but he shirked her grip, growled as he held his hands out over Hartt’s chest again, a desperate and wild edge to his expression.
“I can do this.” His black eyebrows pinched hard as he pressed his palms to Hartt’s chest. “Nature will yield to me.”
“Vail,” Rosalind whispered and he sagged, shoulders sinking as he looked back at her, his brow furrowing and a wealth of pain in his eyes.
“I can…” His voice was low, lacked conviction as he gazed at his mate.
“Why would she refuse to heal him?” Mackenzie bit out, refusing to give up as he clearly was. “She connected with him in Rosalind’s garden and even in Hell. I saw it. Why would she reject him now?”
Vail looked at her and shook his head. “I do not know. Perhaps there was too much darkness in him when he died and that is why nature will not help me heal him.”
No. She couldn’t accept that. She wouldn’t.
“Try again!” she snapped.
“Mac,” Syn whispered and tears filled Mackenzie’s eyes again as she knew what her friend was saying, as she felt it deep in her shattered heart.
He was gone, and she had to accept that nothing was going to bring him back now.
A harrowing roar sliced through the night and her gaze whipped to her left. Pain scraped her insides raw as Fuery raced towards them, as his wild eyes fixed on Hartt. Jagged black lines chased over him and he disappeared, made her jump as he reappeared right beside his friend’s head.
He fell to his knees and framed Hartt’s face with his shaking hands. “No.”
More tears spilled down her cheeks as they fell from Fuery’s eyes too, as he looked as if his entire world was falling apart, something she felt inside too.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, wanted to reach for him to console him but couldn’t bring herself to release Hartt’s hand.
Fuery threw his head back and unleashed another howl of pain, one that wanted to rip from her too as she gazed at her mate.
A frigid wind blew across them and almost knocked Fuery onto his back. He lowered his head and braced his hands against the ground, and Mackenzie caught her hair, pulled it back to stop it from whipping her in the face.
Fuery stared at her.
His eyes slowly widening.
Those wild eyes dropped to Hartt and he grabbed his friend’s shoulders and shook him. “Wake up!”
Gods, the poor male had lost his mind.
She could only stare at him as he continued to shake Hartt, as he patted his face and spoke in the elf tongue, his lyrical words all rolling together into a fast stream that had Vail frowning at the male.
And then Vail looked at her with that same crazed glimmer in his eyes.
His words shook her as he placed his right hand on Fuery’s shoulder. “It is possible he did not gain that ability, Fuery. Or that it will have passed.”
Ability?
She was even more confused when Fuery growled at him in the common tongue.
“He must have. He can come back!” Fuery went back to shaking Hartt as if trying to rouse him.
Her eyes slowly widened as she pieced together a possible answer. They were talking about her abilities. Her power to resurrect.
She looked at Vail.
He shifted his gaze to meet hers. “It might explain why nature refused to even connect with me in order for me to heal him. She did not need to in order to bring him back to life.”
“What might explain?” she barked, losing patience as hope began to build inside her, a tiny spark that felt as if it might destroy her if she lost it this time.
“You mated with Hartt,” Rosalind said, looking as impatient as Mackenzie felt, and she was grateful to the witch for looking as if she was going to explain everything rather than talking about things as if Mackenzie knew everything about elves already. “He took your blood. When an elf takes blood from the vein, they temporarily gain the abilities of the species they took it from. Mackenzie, Vail is right. It is possible that Hartt didn’t gain that ability or that too long has passed since he took your blood.”