My Fated Mate Can Have Her-Chapter 193: He Just Might Die

Violet

"Rowan?" My voice cracked. "Rowan, please say something."

He didn’t answer immediately.

His head was bowed, his breath coming in shallow, ragged gasps that seemed to take everything out of him. Each exhale wheezed through his chest like something was broken inside.

The silence stretched on, and my panic surged.

"Rowan!" I grabbed his face with both hands, forcing his head up. "Don’t you dare close your eyes. Rowan, what do I do? Tell me what to do!"

His eyelids fluttered open. Those green eyes, usually so sharp and knowing, were unfocused.

"Just..." He finally spoke, his voice barely above a whisper. "Give me... a moment."

A moment. He needed a moment. But every second that passed felt like an eternity, and the blood... there was so much blood that kept seeping through his torn clothes, dripping onto the wet stones beneath us.

My hands were shaking so badly I couldn’t control them.

"I am glad... you’re safe," he murmured, his words slurring together.

"You idiot," I whispered, and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to hit him or hold him. "You absolute idiot. You shouldn’t have come with me."

"I should have... reached you sooner. I tried to... but the current..."

"Stop apologizing!" My voice broke on the last word, and I felt heat prick at the corners of my eyes. "Just stop. Stop talking. Save your strength. We need to move."

I was already looking around just as I was talking.

He nodded weakly, and then to my horror, he started trying to push himself up.

His arms trembled violently. A low, guttural sound of pain escaped through his clenched teeth.

"No, wait—stop!" I grabbed his arm, trying to hold him still. "Don’t move. I’ll carry you. Just stop, please—"

"Need to move," he ground out, turning his head to look at me. "It’s... not safe waiting."

His muscles strained beneath my hands, trembling violently as he forced his body upward. Every inch of movement seemed to cost him something vital, and watching it happen was unbearable.

"Stop. I will carry you. You’re hurting yourself!"

He finally made it to something resembling standing, though he swayed dangerously, his weight threatening to pull him back down. I ducked under his arm, pulling it across my shoulders, and nearly buckled as his full weight as he sagged against me. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

He was so heavy. So much heavier than I expected. My knees threatened to give out, but I locked them, gritting my teeth and forcing myself to stay upright.

And then I felt it.

His skin was cold.

Not just cool, but genuinely cold, like something vital was draining out of him with every passing second.

My heart nearly stopped.

"Rowan—" My voice came out strangled.

"There." He lifted one trembling hand and pointed.

I followed his gesture and felt my stomach drop.

I stared at the thundering curtain of water, at the violent spray and the churning current that had nearly killed us both, and something between hysteria and fury rose in my chest.

"Are you insane?!" I stared at him, incredulous. "The current alone would—"

"There is a cave there," he wheezed.

I wanted to argue. Wanted to tell him this was madness, that we would both drown, that there had to be another way.

But his body shuddered against mine, his head dropping forward, and I felt the thread of the bond between us flicker.

I also wasn’t sure where else we could go, and there wasn’t enough time.

I spread out my syzygy and managed to pinpoint what he was talking about. He was right. There was actually a large cavern space behind the waterfall and it was deep.

Energy burned through me and I stepped into the water.

The first step into the current nearly knocked me off my feet and the spray from the falls hit us with a cold and relentless splashing that pounded against my face and chest until I could barely breathe.

Rowan’s weight threatened to pull me sideways. I tightened my grip on him, my fingers digging into his cold flesh, and kept pushing forward.

The waterfall was right beside us now, a solid curtain of white crashing down with enough force to crush bone. I couldn’t see anything beyond it. Couldn’t sense anything through the chaos of water and noise.

I was moving blind, relying on my syzygy and one hand stretched out in front of me, feeling along the rocky face.

Nothing.

Nothing.

Then I came along the edges of an opening.

My fingers found empty space where there should have been stone. A gap. Narrow and hidden, but there.

I pulled us toward it.

The water battered against my back as I forced us through the entrance, and then suddenly the roar was behind us and we were stumbling forward into darkness.

It was pitch black a few steps in.

I couldn’t see my hand anymore and all I could feel was Rowan’s weight on me, along with the drenched bags hovering in the air behind us.

"Deeper," he whispered. "Go deeper."

I didn’t argue.

I spread my syzygy outward first, checking for threats. The cave stretched back into the rock, twisting and turning, but there was nothing inside. No animals. No wolves. Nothing living at all.

Just us.

I moved carefully, one hand on the wall to guide me, the other keeping Rowan upright. We were both drenched, water streaming off our bodies and pooling on the damp stone floor. Every step echoed in the darkness.

And then, around a turning in the passage, the darkness changed.

Suddenly, there was light.

I stopped so abruptly I nearly dropped Rowan.

The walls around us were embedded with crystals. Hundreds of them, maybe thousands, jutting from the stone in clusters and veins. They glowed with a soft, pale white colour anf flooded the whole space with light.

The floor here was damp but cleaner than the entrance, worn smooth by time. I lowered him as gently as I could, easing his back against the cave wall, my hands trembling as I let go.

And when I really looked at him.

My heart seized in my chest.