THE FOURTH SEAL

*HOSPITAL LIGHTS AND HONEST LIES*

*CHAPTER 4:

*POV: VEYLA*

The hospital smelled like bleach and fear. The kind of fear that sits in the walls.

__DAY 2. 08:00:00.

YOUR DATE TODAY: RIVEN.

HOSPITAL. 8 AM.

SEE WHAT HE DOES.__

I stood outside the sliding glass doors for a full minute. My hands were in my jacket pockets, gripping my phone so hard my knuckles hurt. _Do I go in? Do I call Maeve? Do I run?_

The doors hissed open and cold air hit my face.

Riven was waiting just inside. Not in a suit. Blue scrubs, a white coat with something dark on the sleeve that I didn’t want to think about. Stethoscope around his neck. Dark circles under his eyes. He looked 10 years older than he had yesterday.

> *"You came,"* he said. His voice was rough, like he hadn’t used it.

> *"You told me to,"* I replied.

He shook his head. "I didn’t." His eyes flicked down to my phone in my hand. "He did."

_Of course. Conquest._

The ER was chaos. Beds lined the hallway. Nurses were running. A kid was crying somewhere behind a curtain. Monitors beeping. It was loud and messy and real.

_This is his fault. This is what Pestilence looks like._

And yet he was moving through it like he belonged here. Stopping at every bed. Checking vitals. Touching foreheads.

He stopped at a little girl. Maybe 7. Hair in pigtails. Fever. IV in her arm. Her mom was asleep in the chair next to her.

Riven took the girl’s small hand in his. For a second his eyes went completely black. No iris. No white. Just black. Then they went back to brown.

The monitor next to the bed beeped. The number dropped. 103. 102. 101.

The mom stirred but didn’t wake up.

"How did you do that?" I whispered.

"I took it," he said quietly. He didn’t look at me. He was watching the girl. "The sickness. I can hold it. For a while."

He finally turned to me and I saw it then. The weight. The exhaustion in every line of his face.

> *"This is what I am, Veyla. I’m the one who carries the pain so others don’t have to."*

My chest hurt. Because I hated him yesterday. And today I didn’t know what I felt.

*POV: MAEVE + DEX*

We were in the waiting room on the 2nd floor with coffee that tasted like burnt tires.

"Okay so," Dex said, blowing on his cup. "Theory time. If Riven can take sickness out of people, can he take the curse out of you too?"

Maeve was slouched in the plastic chair, phone in her hand, scrolling but not reading. She hadn’t slept. Neither had I.

"I don’t know," she said. "But I do know that Veyla hasn’t slept in 36 hours and if she passes out I’m going to kill all four of them."

Dex snorted. "Add it to the list."

He paused. "Also. Guy in the white suit. By the elevators. He’s been there for 20 minutes. Not moving. Not on his phone. Just... standing."

Maeve looked up immediately.

White suit. White horse pin on the lapel. Pale eyes. Hands in his pockets.

_Conquest._

> *"He’s watching her,"* Maeve said. Her voice dropped. "We need to get her out. Now."

Dex stood up. "I’ll go distract him. You go get her."

"Don’t get yourself killed, dumbass."

"Me? Never."

*POV: RIVEN*

I felt him before I saw him.

Cold. Clean. Wrong. Like a room with all the air sucked out.

Conquest was in my hospital.

"Veyla," I said. "We need to go."

"Why?" She frowned.

"Because he’s here."

As if I’d said his name out loud, the lights flickered. The PA system crackled to life.

"Code White. Code White. All available staff to ER."

Conquest walked through the double doors of the ER.

And people moved. Not because he asked. But because their bodies knew to get out of his way.

He stopped in front of us. Looked at me first.

"Hello, Doctor." His smile was polite. Empty.

Then he looked at Veyla.

"Hello, Oracle. Come to watch him fail?"

> *"I’m not going anywhere with you,"* I said before she could.

"Not yet," he said. He tilted his head like he was studying her. "But you will. Because he can’t save them all. And I can."

He snapped his fingers.

Every monitor in the ER flatlined. One second. Two.

Then they all came back on at once.

Children started crying. A nurse swore. Alarms went off and then stopped.

"That was a warning," Conquest said. Still smiling. "Day 2. Choose me, or watch him drown."

He walked out. The automatic doors closed behind him.

The temperature in the room rose 10 degrees the moment he was gone.

*POV: VALE*

I was watching from the car across the street. Four phones open. Four camera feeds.

On screen 3: Riven was swaying. He’d taken too much. The sickness was in him now.

On screen 2: Maeve was running down the hall.

On screen 1: Veyla was standing there, frozen.

Zade was in the passenger seat, tapping his foot. "We going in?"

"No," I said. My voice was flat. "She needs to see this."

"See what? Him collapse?" Knox said from the back seat.

"See who stays," I said. "When it gets ugly. When there’s no cameras. No audience."

My phone buzzed.

Conquest: _She’s going to break. And when she does, she’ll come to me._

I deleted it. My hands were shaking on the steering wheel.

*POV: VEYLA*

Riven collapsed 10 minutes later.

One second he was standing. The next his knees buckled.

I caught him. Or tried to. He was heavier than he looked and he was burning up.

"You took too much," I said. My voice broke. "Riven. Look at me."

"Had to," he whispered. His skin was so hot it hurt. "Or they would’ve... they would’ve died."

His eyes closed.

Nurses rushed in. Pushed me aside gently but firmly.

I stood there with my hands still out, like I could hold him up if I just tried harder.

_If he dies, it’s because of me. Because of this stupid game._

*POV: MAEVE*

I found her in the hallway outside his room.

She was sitting on the floor. Back against the wall. Staring at nothing.

"Hey," I said softly and sat next to her. "You good?"

She didn’t answer for a long time.

"Did you see him?" she asked finally. "He took it all. For them."

"I know," I said. I bumped her shoulder with mine. "That’s why we’re not letting him win, okay? Any of them."

She leaned her head on my shoulder. For 30 seconds we just sat there.

Then Dex appeared with three cups of coffee.

"Hospital coffee," he said. "It’s terrible. But it’s warm."

We laughed. It was a small, broken sound. But it was something.

*POV: ZADE*

We got to the hospital room at 11 PM.

Veyla was sitting by Riven’s bed. Holding his hand. She looked wrecked. Hair in a messy bun. No makeup. Eyes red but dry.

"Hey," I said softly from the doorway. "You okay?"

She looked up. "He saved them. And now he’s—"

"He’s fine," I said. I came in and sat on the other side of the bed. "He always comes back. We do."

Knox was leaning in the doorway. Vale was behind him, arms crossed. None of us were smiling.

"You did good today, Oracle," Knox said.

"I didn’t choose anyone," she said.

> *"You didn’t have to,"* Vale said. "Not today."

For a second, the four of us weren’t enemies.

We were just four men watching the woman we’d destroyed the world for, fall asleep in a hospital chair with our friend’s hand in hers.

*POV: VEYLA*

I woke up at 3 AM.

The room was dark except for the machines. Riven was stable. Sleeping.

On the bedside table: a cup of coffee. Still warm.

And a note in messy, familiar handwriting:

_You didn’t run. -R_

My phone buzzed on the chair next to me.

__DAY 2. ENDED.

NO CHOICE MADE.

DAY 3: ZADE. 8 PM. CONCERT.__

And under it, another message. Unknown number.

Conquest: _He’ll wake up. But will he wake up for you, or because of me?_

I deleted it.

I looked at Riven. His breathing was steady.

And for the first time since this started, I wondered something dangerous.

> *_What if love isn’t about who I want?

> What if it’s about who stays when I’m broken?__

*POV: CONQUEST*

I was watching from the roof across the street.

Binoculars. White wine.

She was holding his hand. Maeve and Dex were arguing about coffee in the hallway.

_Interesting. She has friends. She has people. That makes this harder._

My phone buzzed.

Message to Veyla: _Day 3. Don’t go to the concert. Come to me. I’ll show you what freedom looks like. No games. No choices. Just you and me._

I hit send and smiled.

> _"Let’s see who she chooses when she thinks no one is watching."_

to be continued...