Portal

CILLIAN’S POV
I watched Killian fall face down. There was blood, and he wasn’t moving.
My chest caught fire and I went full primal again. The rage I felt was like none other. I combed through the enemies, crushing them in numbers. Estella was my target but she was surrounded by too many people.
She opened a portal and disappeared into it.
Oh no you don’t.
I leapt over the crowd and chased after her but the portal was already closing slowly. The witches swamped around me, attacking from all angles. Casting spells and poking me with weapons. My necklace glowed brighter and brighter.
I couldn’t take it anymore. I roared with everything in me and I felt a great surge of energy encapsulate me and then…
Boom.
There was a big blast. When I looked around, all the rogues were on the ground. Dead.
I ran to that portal, it was almost closed but I could still get in.
I turned and saw Killian, still in the same position and not moving. I looked at the portal again, and I jumped in. I grabbed the necklace instinctively and the wall opened. Standing behind it was Estella.
She saw and tried to pull something off but without thinking, I just grabbed the necklace, tore it off my neck and grabbed her neck with the same hand.
She choked and scratched my face but couldn’t do much. She lost consciousness from the pressure before long.
ROSALIND’S POV
They rushed Killian to the infirmary immediately. He was still unconscious and his condition was critical.
Cillian couldn’t stay at a place, he kept pacing frantically while they worked on his brother in the emergency ward.
I went to where he stood to calm him down. He was so lost in his thoughts that he didn’t even notice me immediately.
“Rosalind…” He started when he saw me.
I shut him up with a hug.
“It will be fine, they are doing their best now. It will be fine.”
I wondered if I was telling him that to calm him down or if I was reassuring myself. He held me in the waiting room and even amidst all that was going on, his touch still sent spark through my body.
The Doctor came out of the ward soon after to see us.
“Is he awake?” Cillian asked. He was almost shouting.
“Your highnesses.” The man in white scrubs bowed.
“We are trying our best, my prince, but he is not responsive. We still can’t find a heartbeat.” He said the last statement in a whisper.
“Then try harder!” Cillian growled at the man.
“Try again and keep trying till he wakes up. Do not come out till my brother is back, do you understand?” Cillian’s eyes were in flames.
The flustered man nodded and scrambled back into the ward.
We watched from outside as they used a defibrillator to try to revive him. They kept trying and trying but there was still no heartbeat.
Cillian let go of me and kicked open the door of the ward.
“Everybody out.” He said through grinded teeth.
The nurses poured away immediately as fast as they could.
“Except you.” He pointed at the doctor.
The sweaty man gulped and said nothing.
Cillian gave him the defibrillator. And turned the machine to its highest number of Joules.
“Your highness, that is a very unsafe range, it might kill him.”
Cillian ignored the man and handed the two small devices back to him.
“On the count of three, you go. His heart is already stopped, it doesn’t get any much worse than this. On three. One…two…three!”
Immediately the device touched Killian’s chest, the lights in the ward momentarily went off. When it came back on, there was a heartbeat, then another and another.
It worked!
The doctor was so relieved.
“Let us leave them to their work and get some fresh air.” I said, pulling Cillian out of the ward.
He followed quietly.
On our way down, we came across some guards. They were taking some of the captured enemies to the dungeons.
Estella was part of them. She wasn’t struggling or anything, she just obeyed them without a word. As they were being taken, she looked at me.
Immediately we made eye contact, something flashed in my mind and I had this sudden inexplicable feeling of dizziness. I staggered but Cillian caught me.
“Are you alright, Rosa?”
“Yeah, I’m fine, I just… I’m fine.” I nodded.
I looked at Estella again. There was something in her gaze, she had felt it too. I couldn’t quite explain it.
I called some of the workers to help freshen up and get some rest. Had it been up to Cillian, he would have stayed in the infirmary until Killian woke up. I couldn’t let him do that after being in the field throughout the day. He needed rest.
When Cillian left, I went to pick some herbs. I got some cloves, sage, lemon grass, mint and motherwort. I washed them and grinded it into a paste. The mint helped give it a fresh scent.
It was night time already, Killian was still unconscious, though he was stable now. He laid down looking very peaceful with all the monitors around him and everything.
I remembered how Cillian had been hysterical earlier. I had never seen him like that before. Cillian was always the calm and collected one. They might always fight but he loved his brother very much.
I took out the herb paste. I had learned to use natural herbs from back home when Bast used to hurt himself from playing all the time. It was cheaper than medicine and it didn’t leave scars.
I lifted Killian’s torn shirt.
There were a lot of injuries. Some looked like knife cuts, scratches, bruises and then the big bruise from the last blow he took. I worked on the open wounds first, gently applying the paste lightly over the areas. The wounds looked very painful.
I took his temperature and noticed he had a slight fever. I was sure it wasn’t as a result of an infected wound.
I fetched some cold water from the stream and soaked a towel in it. The water was furiously cold but it was just what was needed to help his temperature.
When I was done, he seemed to be stabilized.
I swept my eyes over his body and noticed for the first time that night how chiseled Killian’s body actually was.
Even despite the wounds, bruises and cuts. His abs were mouth watering. Like all I could think of was biting them for some reason. I sat down and pulled my chair closer to the bed. I placed my hand on it but a sound from the night workers outside brought me back to reality. There were other people here too. I off the thoughts
His breathing had stabilized a bit. He looked like he was having a good dream though but all I wanted was for him to just wake up so I could breathe a huge sigh of relief. I had seen the blast that hit him, it was enormous.
I said a silent prayer to the goddess and went back to my chambers.
I visited Killian every day for the next week to change his wound dressing and to apply more ointments and herbs. His condition was slowly improving, the fever had finally subsided but he was still yet to wake up.
One night, the nurse walked into the room to do a checkup on Killian. She bowed when she saw me and said, “It was very thoughtful of you to apply those herbs on the prince’s wounds, my princess. They helped in healing the wounds a bit faster.” She said to me.
I nodded.
“I’m not really sure why his wounds aren’t fully healed. The process is about twenty times slower now, it’s very surprising since he is an alpha.” The nurse said more to herself than to me. She did some checks and left.
I knew why the wounds were taking so long. It was magic. There was something more going on here and that was why Killian was still in a coma.
I remembered the encounter with Estella. That feeling was a bad one. The fact that she was somewhere in the palace right now was very discomforting. Something did not feel right here.
“I was hoping you would be paying a little bit more attention to someone you came to visit.”.
I snapped out of my thoughts at the sound of Killian’s voice.
Killian was staring at me from the bed with a smirk on his face.
“I’ve been awake for more than ten seconds but you were too lost to notice. If you worked here I would have made sure you got fired from your job today.”
Without thinking, I enveloped him in a hug. I did not realize how long it had been since I last heard his obnoxious voice.