Deny Me, Dragon King novel · Chapter 13 of 24

Chapter 13: Cold Hands

I got Posy off the floor and she burned through my sleeves.

The red in her eyes frightened me more than the gold ever had.

"The healer," I told the nurse. "Run. Now."

The nurse ran, and I sat down on the bed with my daughter against my chest.

Her skin was hotter than the stove at home when it was set for bread.

"Mama, it hurts," she said, and smoke came out with the words.

"I know, love. I know."

I did the only thing my hands knew how to do.

I opened my dress at the neck, pulled her in skin to skin, and wrapped my arms around her back.

It was what I did when she had croup, and when she had her first fever, and on the night she was born.

For a long breath nothing changed.

Then the heat in her ribs eased under my hand.

It didn't vanish.

It went down the way a kettle does when you lift it off the flame.

I stared at my own palms.

The old healer came through the door at a run, with her shawl half off and the nurse behind her.

She put two fingers on Posy's throat and stopped.

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