Windswept (The Airborne Saga) (21 page)

             
She didn’t need extra time to rest. She’d just woken up. And being around more friendly faces would help.

             
“He wishes you to meet with the doctor again, I believe. But I know he will also be there.” Leon flicked his wrist and presumably glanced at his watch. His step back to clear Avery’s chair was an indicator, and she shot to a stand. Dumping out the rest of her food, she paced down the corridors in silence. Only when she reached the room and spotted Mason in the hall did she speak up.

             
“Hey!” she called.

             
He stood with Stern and the old harpie gave her a flat look before leaving with a last word to Mason. Stern may or may not have read the paper. That attitude was just Stern.

             
“Come with me, I have someone I wish you to meet. Your services are no longer required.” Overly formal, he directed the last part to Leon, before seizing the side of her arm. Mason was stiff as they headed into a study.

             
“Sit down,” he directed her again.

             
Reluctant, Avery plopped down into the nearest arm chair. The cushions sunk in before she even had the chance to slouch. Mason stood, posted at the other wall. He faced the room but it remained clear his mind dwindled on other things. Avery wanted to call him on it. He’d seen the papers. But she found no way to do it before the door opened again.

             
The doctor entered, more slouched over and much slower than he’d been last time.

             
“Avery, this is the doctor,” Mason finally spoke to her.

             
“Yea, we’ve met.”

             
The doctor huffed and perched in the chair across from hers. Before he could even gesture, Avery already lifted her arm. He stared at the tattoo for a moment without a word. Then he went for a blue notebook in his briefcase.

             
“Be polite. He is most loyal to my father and the only one I could entrust with such a delicate task.”

             
She shot Mason a look. He was admonishing her now? The doctor interjected before the air in the room could become any heavier.

             
“I think I’ve figured out some answers. Honestly, I’d assumed before but I needed this girl to put the last piece in the puzzle. The Willow magic is not acting up. Because this is not the Willow magic.”

             
“What?” Avery asked.

             
The doctor flipped his notebook over to show a map of numbers connected and shaded in by black ink. The image was incomprehensible as the writing was so chaotic.

             
“Taken from Jericho’s diary. The Willow magic is nothing pure or simple. It was a concoction held together by organic substance—blood.”

             
This she knew. Avery nodded eagerly, forgetting that Mason was even in the room.

             
“The Willow was the first of its kind. Extremely powerful. And it seems too powerful to exist. This is not what had happened to our old king Mikhail. This is the Willow magic compound becoming unstable. And breaking down into its original formula. Hence, this is not the Willow magic.”

             
Eva’s words suddenly echoed in her head clear as day. It’s decaying. Avery had taken enough of chemistry to understand compounds breaking apart from instability. But what she didn’t understand, she voiced immediately.

             
“But how is it still working then? Eva was still using it.”

             
The doctor gave her a dull look.

             
“Unstable over time. It’s time that’s the ultimate factor, not usage. Although I suspect more usage of the magic will encourage it to break down quickly.  Eva had a stronger less stable magic. She’d nearly caught up to you, the one who’s had it the longest. The decay has already begun. The Willow magic you feel you can use is just a shadow of its former self. And sometimes you’re even using the elements of magic in the purest forms.

             
“Now I suspect you may have figured out that which leaves us questioning. If the magic is decaying, what danger does that pose to you? I initially suspected that without the binding organic aspect, the compound would break down and escape your form. As I’ve seen when studying Eva and you, this is not the case. The decaying compound will sit and rot until the individual unstable elements wreak havoc with the host.”

             
Mason shifted back into the conversation with a low voice and a dark sentiment.

             
“Unstable elements that could kill, correct? Don’t sugar coat it.”

             
Sugar coating wasn’t necessary. The doctor had already dropped the information like a sledge hammer and by the time it caught up to Avery’s brain, her head was already reeling.

             
“Unless we find a way to stabilize the magical elements, it could, in fact, be fatal. But I do know the warning signs. Girl, tell me now. Do you have any pain? Trouble with eyesight? Walking? Unexplained headaches or sudden chest pain?”

“Uh, no no and no?”

“Avery, don’t under exaggerate. You know you have some of those. I’ve seen you in pain,” Mason snapped. If it wasn’t for the undertone of concern in his voice, she would have been more offended by it.

It was true that she was a bit off lately
, but she was always a bit off. A little dizziness, tiredness, and confusion could have been caused by a number of things.

“Well if I am correct, you needn’t worry until the pain becomes incessant. It won’t come and go. It won’t let up. It’ll just get worse and more painful in a short amount of time.”

“What happens then?” Avery beat Mason to the question, but their voices rang at the same time. “What do we do if that happens?” Mason seconded.

“Honestly boys and girls, it means almost certain death. Those symptoms will start as agony. A pain in your chest. The inability to walk is when your body begins diverting energy from your muscles. Confusion, vision loss, selective deafness.
Your organs may begin shutting down. The elements of the magic need to be stabilized.”

The oxygen seemed to leave the room. Avery felt di
zzy now and fanned at her throat. She didn’t look for Mason’s reaction because the doctor continued.

“In
that situation, you would need to seek medical help. You will need to be resuscitated. What doctors can really do otherwise is close to naught. Considering the time from the start of the decline to the finish is a few days at most, consideration and preparation is necessary.”

“Brilliant
,” Avery said without even thinking. Her hands sought out the desk beside her and she dropped onto it. Her knees were feeling weak now.

This time Avery did look for Mason’s reaction but
knew he managed to put on a mask of steel.

“Okay. And until we feel such symptoms, we should be in relatively no danger?”

“That is correct.” The doctor nodded.

“Wait, wait,” Avery interjected quickly. “Are you legitimately telling us the only thing we’re going to do is die? Why would we accept that?”

The doctor gave her such a cold look, it seemed he might edge up doom’s date.

“I was brought here for my honesty after all.”

“I’m still surprised you would be so blunt about the Prince. Maybe the one person in the world you’re charged for keeping alive!” Avery didn’t know what possessed her to drop that card but she knew the sudden anger came from fear. Mason’s hand suddenly reached out and squeezed her shoulder.

“He’s right
, Avery. We need to know what we’re dealing with. Lying won’t help us deal with anything.” His tone walked a careful balance between comforting and deathly serious. “He just said that right now we are fine. And right now we have time to deal with this. So we will.”

“Okay, then where are we starting with that exactly?” They had already tried ev
erything. They’d been looking researching everything for a long time.

“Please excuse us
,” Mason asked of the doctor. The old harpie didn’t give him the death glare but picked up his brown briefcase and shuffled for the door.

The room grew quiet again and Avery didn’t budge. Extremely engrossed in
the beige rug and iron feet of the desk, she focused on anything but Mason.

             
“I’m sorry, Avery,” Mason said. “I know you didn’t need to hear it quite so bluntly. But you are the first, you have it the worst, so you needed to know the most.”

             
“That’s okay,” She said, but it wasn’t. She was in desperate need of some reassurance, but Mason stood so far away. He seemed uncomfortable.

             
“Mason, we’ll deal. We always have.”

             
“It’s not like it used to be Avery. Can’t you see that?”

             
She let out a breath. They’d had death sentences before. But watching Mason give into it now, she felt more hopeless than before.

             
“I have so many things to deal with already. This is just…” He stopped himself.

“Is this about the articles? The news?”

              Her question finally made something in Mason’s eyes soften, but as quickly as it was there, it was gone.

             
“No. The press will do what it likes. I have a speech tomorrow to give in front of my entire kingdom. I have a lover who might die at anytime because of a magic I don’t know how to fix. And I have the council badgering me about my rule every step of the way—but I can’t even get help because I can’t tell them any part of our problems.” He let out a breath, but tension still kept his body stiff.

             
“You’re obviously freaking out. Just calm down. Come with me, we can spend the day together and you’ll forget about it.”

             
“Forget about it? My speech is tomorrow afternoon, Avery. You don’t understand anything about court. Just go back to your room. I’ll speak with you later.”

             
He didn’t give her an opportunity to protest or even feel the hurt that followed. Mason left the room, a cloud of anxiety and anger in his wake.