The Luna Queen's Rebirth (Ellie and Dominic) novel Chapter 422

apter 422

Ellie’s POV

I was already moving before the leaf hit the ground.

I dropped to my knees beside Nico. His back had bowed off the step, legs trembling as a thin line of spit gathered at the corner of his mouth. I slid a hand under his head so he couldn’t crack it on the stone and took a breath, then forced myself to carefully study him the way I had been trained, just like in all my exams, with a critical eye.

His lips were blue, the skin of his throat already swelling under my fingers. Each breath he drew in was shallower than the last, his eyes wide and bulging as he looked up at me.

He was conscious. Which meant he might not be having a seizure like I initially thought.

“Nico?” I asked, pulling my penlight out and shining it in his eyes. His pupils reacted. “Nico, can you hear me?”

He nodded faintly, then gestured to his throat.

“You can’t breathe?” I asked.

He shook his head. His airway was closing. He was having an allergic reaction.

Nico’s eyes darted to his hand, his fist too tight to release it himself. Prying his fingers apart, I knocked the leaf into the snow, then hooked both arms under his and dragged him over the threshold into the clinic.

“It’s okay,” I said. “I’ve got an epipen. It’s okay. You’re okay.”

My kit was on the second shelf where I’d left it that morning. I’d never been so grateful to be a tidy person in all my life.

I bit the cap off the pen, found the meat of his thigh through his trousers, and drove the needle in. Held it. Counted. His whole body trembled, every muscle tight, mouth opening and closing in soudless gasps.

“Come on,” I said. “Come on, Nico. Breathe for me.”

For three seconds nothing changed, and the floor dropped out from under me. But then he pulled in a breath that expanded his chest, just a little, just enough to get in some oxygen. And

another.

Finally, he choked and sputtered and breathed again, managing a single word.

“Th…Thanks.”

“Fuck,” I whispered. I sat back on my heels and let out a breath of my own, my mind racing. Was it the plant I’d given him that set off his allergic reaction?

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