We left Lord Phillip's office alongside with Maine, we were tasked by Lord Phillip to deliver the antidote to the hospital. Constantine proved it's worth and became an valuable cure.
Half of the population was infected by the same disease. Some of them died while others were bedwritten by the disease. This was my opportunity to save these people.
"Maine." I said
"What is it, Lady Roxy?"
"Isn't Luke's brother inside the hospital?"
"Yes, he too, also was infected."
I learned that back when I was in the cabin, Luke told me that his younger brother was bedridden and slept for nearly a week, it was the effect of the disease. Luke left the guild and became a conductor to the water supply. Hoping to save others from the disease alongside his brother.
"Maine, I promise I will protect our guildmembers."
"I'm counting on you, Lady Roxy."
Maine was holding the cure tightly. Thirty bottle flasks still remained, all of them were filled with my very own blood. I sacrificed my arm on this cure, for the sake of the townspeople safety.
The moment we stepped onto the Bureau's stone steps the air turned tense. It wasn't the noise; it was the hunger in their eyes. A wave of people rushed forward a crowd with gaunt faces and outstretched hands. They weren't regular people anymore; they were a group of grief and fear and they saw me as their only hope.
"The girl! It's the girl who stopped the disease!"
"Save us! Please save our children!"
They pushed closer their voices overlapping into a desperate cry. I felt a hand brush against my shoulder. A touch from a woman with scared bloodshot eyes. I flinched, my body recoiling from the contact my right side aching with a pain.
Suddenly the space around me disappeared.
Maine handed me the box full of antidote and did something unspeakable.
Maine didn't just step in front of me; he moved like an animal protecting its prey. With a motion he drew his dagger. The cold steel edge catching the pale light of the gas lamps. The metallic sound cut through the noise a sound that brought the crowd to a stop.
"Back! You animals!"
Maine roared, his voice thick with a protective anger I had never heard from him before. He stood between me and the crowd his blade held low his stance ready to hurt anyone who dared to get close.
"Do you not see her? Do you not see what shes done for you to even breathe another day? Stay back!" Maine said
I stood behind his shoulders watching the crowd. They stopped,. They didn't look ashamed. Not yet. They looked like starving animals suddenly reminded of the danger. Their eyes flicked from the dagger to my bandages, the blood-soaked cloth visible where my arm used to be.
That was when the guilt finally hit them.
The woman who had touched me fell back her hands flying to her mouth as she saw the state of my body. A man near the front who had been shouting for help sank to his knees his face crumpling as he realized the blood on my wound wasn't paint. It was the cost of their survival.
"Look at her. She is not your savior. She is a girl who had to sacrifice herself just to keep you from dying. You don't get to touch her. You don't get to crowd her. You owe her a silence you don't deserve."
Maine hissed at the crowd his dagger still trembling in his grip his eyes darting to every person who dared to step.
I watched them. I saw the realization dawn on them. The weight of their selfishness hitting them as they realized I was standing there missing a part of my own body held together by sheer willpower. The crowd began to part, not out of respect. Out of shame. They were finally seeing the monster. And the martyr I had become.
"Maine, put the knife away. They're afraid of the thing."
I said my voice cutting through his anger.
He didn't move for a second his chest heaving his protective instincts still flared. He turned slightly his eyes searching my face for any sign of weakness. When he saw my expression he finally put away the blade though his hand remained clenched at his side ready to draw it again.
"We're moving." he muttered, his voice a whisper for me alone.
He didn't ask; he moved, creating a path through the crowd. I followed him the people pressing back into the shadows to let us pass their eyes fixed on the floor.
The walk to the town hospital was a blur of shadows and the heavy scent of sickness. When we pushed through the doors the atmosphere changed instantly. The air was thick with the smell of death and medicine. We moved past rows of the dying past the struggling breaths of men and women who were fading into the dark until we reached the end of the hall.
The hospital room was a place. It smelled like sickness. Felt hopeless. Luck was lying on the bed his chest moving up and down in breaths. Luke sat next to him looking like a shadow of his self. Seeing them like that the broken brother watching his kin get worse made me feel a pain.
I walked into the light. You could see the bandages on my side against the dull hospital walls. Luke looked up his eyes red and empty. Wearing his red suit and still in his conductor's uniform, he had taken a day off just to see his brother.
"Lady Roxy?" he whispered, his voice shaking as he pointed to my arm.
"Lady Roxy, your still injured. You can't go outside like that."
I did not answer him. I reached into my pocket. Pulled out a small glowing red bottle. I pressed it to Lucks lips. As I poured the liquid into his mouth I watched his throat move, a swallow that felt like it could change everything.
Luke grabbed my wrist his hand shaking with anger and sadness.
"You are hurt! You are bleeding through those bandages, Lady Roxy! Tell me what you did to save him!"
I pulled my arm away my movement cold and calm.
"You want to know what it cost Luke?"
I looked at him my eyes empty of the girl I used to be.
"I did not use magic or potions. I became the one who could take the sickness."
I watched as Lukes confusion turned to fear.
"I drank the disease, the very same disease that your brother had been gotten. Luke, I made my body stop fighting it. Every part of me that wants to live I had to stop. I let the sickness inside let it hurt my cells. Then I made my body fight it. I learned about the virus while it was trying to destroy my organs." I said, my voice sharp and clear.
Luke stared at me his eyes wide and still.
"You... You took it inside you? Lady Roxy that's like killing yourself! No one can survive that! What is wrong with you? Your blood... It's glowing. That's not right. That's not human!"
"It's not. I have always been safe from poison, Luke. It's a thing I've had since birth. I've spent my life afraid of this "gift" feeling like a freak, a monster who can't be hurt by the world. Today it was the thing that mattered. I made the cure in the place it could be made. My own body."
Luke stepped back like I had hit him. He looked at me not with thanks but with eyes. He saw the truth. That I had always been different. That I had finally accepted that to save his brother.
"You're telling me that my brother is alive because you... You took the sickness into yourself? You drained you very own blood? You bled yourself dry for us?"
"I did what I had to. The cure is made from my body, my sacrifice. If it makes me a monster in your eyes so be it. You know that I am your vice-leader, and being a leader will not giving up from her guild."
Luke looked at Luck at me his face showing guilt, wonder and deep sadness.
"I thought I knew you Lady Roxy. I thought you were, like us. But you were always alone weren't you? You were always the one who could survive this and that... That makes me see how much we've asked of you."
The bed creaked. Lucks fingers curled into the sheets. He jerked. A strong motion.. one of his eyes slowly opened wide desperate as he took a big shaky breath.
Luke did not look at me anymore. He fell to his knees beside the bed crying as he held Lucks hand the weight of the miracle finally breaking him.
I stood in the corner, a shape feeling nothing but the cold beat of my own heart the heart of a girl who had finally stopped pretending to be human.