I Bought the exiled king (by Natalie Winter) novel Chapter 121

Chapter 121

Valencia

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I had opened my mouth to argue, but then a loud bang made us all look to the side, specifically the King’s bed.

He had been lying in the bed without any movement when I walked in, but suddenly he seemed to convulse.

My eyes went wide as I saw him throw his pale hands out and start to thrash not just his legs but his entire body against the bed.

I had not noticed the Crone holding his mouth open with one hand and pouring something in it with the other.

But his hand pushed her away, and she was flung onto a nearby wall, crashing down the vase and her vial.

I and Killian went to stand near the bed while the Crone pushed herself back on her feet and roared instructions.

“Guards, hold him down!”

I watched in horror as the doors opened, and the fleet of guards came running inside.

Meanwhile, the King’s body arched violently against the cushions, arms thrashing as though some invisible hand was pulling his strings taut.

The goblet Martin had dropped earlier rolled across the floor, clanging against stone, but no one moved to pick it up. All eyes were fixed on the bed where the King of Elorin was fighting for breath.

At first, Loyd and two guards tried to hold him down, but he was able to push them all away just like the Crone.

“Hold him down!” The Crone barked, her voice edged with panic.

I staggered closer, heart pounding in my ears.

His lips frothed, and his eyes rolled white. Meanwhile, the Crone and Elder Amara hastily pulled out a few herbs and started grinding it into a paste.

“What are you doing? Just give him the herb as it is!” I let out a panicked cry.

I had wasted precious seconds trying to do the same with Killian, and I knew how horribly ill

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Chapter 121

timed it was.

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The King wasn’t young as Killian nor strong. In fact, only now did I truly look at him.

His body seemed like a bare shell, just skin sticking to the bones. His eyes were hollow and sunken, while the skin was hanging limply down his body in a few places. His hair had thinned a lot too.

I had seen him just a few weeks ago. At that time, he had not appeared to be so sick or dull.

That meant his condition had deteriorated rapidly in the past few days.

While I was wondering to myself, I felt a hand grab my elbow and turn me aside.

“Are you out of your mind? Do you know how concentrated the Wilder root stem is? Do you have any idea how lethal it could be to give a seizing patient the direct stem without mixing it with some ash powder first?”

Nina was gritting her teeth and staring at me with hatred.

Killian was at the King’s side, and Nina had pulled me aside when he wasn’t looking. But I didn’t even want to bother arguing with Nina.

So I simply tried to ignore her, but she kept rambling on something. I started to get angry and wanted to shut her up, but then I noticed something from the corner of my eye.

My gaze snapped to the King’s chest, and at first I thought it had been a trick of light.

But then I saw it.

The hand.

Black–veined. Spidery. Crawling across his chest, just like in my vision.

I gasped in shock and tried to point at it while watching the scene unfold in front of me with abject horror.

That hand seemed to roam around a little as if undecided of which direction it wanted to go.

It pressed down over his heart, the skin beneath it paling, twitching as though struggling against its grip.

The King had just been twitching and thrashing earlier, but the hand pressed down on his heart, and the King stopped moving altogether.

What the hell?

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Chapter 121

The Crone screamed. “Yes, yes, the potion is working. Make more of it! Quick!”

What?

Did she not see the hand? Did nobody else notice it?

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Because everybody seemed to take a breath of relief when she said that. Maybe it was just me who was seeing it.

But that didn’t mean I would let it do whatever it wanted.

I tried to move forward, but Nina stood blocking me, so I gritted my teeth and shoved her hard across from me. She went flying into a nearby wall, but I didn’t wait to watch.

I ran forward, pushing past guards and the priestesses to…I was not sure what I was going to do.

But I wanted that hand gone.

“What are you doing?” Elder Amara asked me as I put both my hands on the King’s chest in an attempt to grab the arm.

But then it recoiled back as if sensing me.

“Go away!” I screamed at it and the shadows flowing out of it like a thick, dense smoke stopped abruptly.

It whispered the same dread I’d heard in my

dream. Not yours. Never yours.

My blood went cold. If I did nothing, that hand would drag him under.

“No,” I gasped, stumbling forward. “No!”

“Stay back,” Nina snapped. “Haven’t you done enough? And who are you talking to? You are the one who should go away.”

She was quite persistent when it came to me, it seemed.

But I couldn’t give her even a lick of attention.

Without thinking, I reached out and pressed my own palm against his heart.

The cold slammed into me like a tidal wave.

For a heartbeat, I couldn’t breathe. The world tilted sideways, smoke and voices and fire blurring into nothing but the icy blackness flooding up my arm. I thought it would swallow me whole.

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Chapter 121

:

The Crone screamed. “Yes, yes, the potion is working. Make more of it! Quick!”

What?

Did she not see the hand? Did nobody else notice it?

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Because everybody seemed to take a breath of relief when she said that. Maybe it was just me who was seeing it.

But that didn’t mean I would let it do whatever it wanted.

I tried to move forward, but Nina stood blocking me, so I gritted my teeth and shoved her hard across from me. She went flying into a nearby wall, but I didn’t wait to watch.

I ran forward, pushing past guards and the priestesses to…I was not sure what I was going to do.

But I wanted that hand gone.

“What are you doing?” Elder Amara asked me as I put both my hands on the King’s chest in an attempt to grab the arm.

But then it recoiled back as if sensing me.

“Go away!” I screamed at it and the shadows flowing out of it like a thick, dense smoke stopped abruptly.

It whispered the same dread I’d heard in my dream. Not yours. Never yours.

My blood went cold. If I did nothing, that hand would drag him under.

“No,” I gasped, stumbling forward. “No!”

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