Page 64 of This Prince Is Not Charming

“Let me call for help,” Lor said. “Please. Don’t you have that sentient painting that can carry messages? What’s her name? Margaret, if I’m remembering right.”

“No,” I gritted out, clutching my stomach tight as pain seared through it. “I can handle this. Just took too much. Going to be fine.” My words came out between heavy breaths.

Lor’s form split into two. “I don’t think you are going to be fine. I don’t think you’re going to be okay at all.”

“Not real,” I said.

“What’s not real?” he asked.

“You. You’re not real,” I said. “In my mind. Not real.”

“If you don’t call her name, I will,” he said.

I laughed, the sound harsh and hacking. “You can’t. You’re me. I’m you.”

I rolled onto my back, spreading my arms and legs out. Spots dotted my vision so that I saw more black than the ceiling painted to look like the sky.

“Margaret,” a voice called. “Damnit, no,” I said. I didn’t even have control over my own mouth anymore, my own voice.

But I didn’t hear Margaret respond, so I wondered if maybe I’d imagined Lor calling her name. Maybe I was imagining all of this, and it was just a bad dream that I’d wake up from any moment. Or maybe I really was dying.

I couldn’t die. I’d never see Ceri again.

“Ceri?” Lor asked. “You will see her again, brother.”

Had I been speaking out loud? My vision started to black out, Lor’s face flickering in and out of darkness.

“No, Cillian. Stay with me. Stay awake. Please. Margaret!”

“Stop doing that,” I said, not even sure what my reality was anymore.

“Don’t want Margaret. Want Ceri. Just want Ceri.”

“I’m here,” she said, and I looked up to see her concerned face. “I’m here.”

I smiled. “I love you,” I said. “I’ve always loved you.”

Her eyes welled with tears.

“I wish you were real. I wish I could tell you all of this for real. I’m sorry I lied. I’m sorry I was so weak.”

She shook her head, those golden curls bouncing with the movement. “No, don’t talk. I’m going to get you help. You’re going to be okay.”

I wasn’t. My entire body was shutting down, and I knew it. This was the end for me. I only hoped Ceri knew how hard I’d fought to stay with her.

“I’m sorry,” I said again, even though I knew that just like Lor, she was an apparition, a ghost in my mind here to remind me how badly I’d failed myself and everyone of Fairwitch Isle, and now, it was too late to fix any of it.

CHAPTER 28

Ceri

Iburst into the healer’s quarters, and Enid whirled around. “What is this?” I held up the vial, the tiniest drop of blue liquid settled in the bottom.

Her pet vine slithered across the floor, curling around one of my legs. I leaned down and patted it.

Enid frowned from where she stood at her wooden table, a pestle in hand that she was using to squash what smelled like garlic. “I haven’t the faintest idea. What’s going on, Ceri? Why do you look so rattled?”

I ran forward and slammed the vial onto the table in front of her, Vine following and slithering up the table. “I need to know what this is, what it does.”