Free The Final Rule by Adrienne Wilder

crossing the pasture.
    Thick grass crunched underfoot as Ellis ran to catch up. He grabbed Jon’s arm to make him stop and he became a statue of flesh in the night.
    “Jon, wake up.” Ellis shook him. “It’s f-freezing out here. Wake up.”
    Jon’s slow exhaled turned white past his lips.
    Ellis huddled under his jacket but his legs were left to the mercy of the frigid air enhanced by the occasional breeze.
    Even asleep Jon should have been freezing.
    “You’ve g-got to wake up.” Ellis patted Jon’s cheek. No response. He slapped Jon hard enough to make his fingers sting.
    Jon blinked once.
    “Damn it.” Ellis pulled Jon by the arm. He took a single step before becoming a statue again.
    Ellis tucked his hands under his armpits. He needed to get them out of the cold, but there was no way Ellis could drag Jon all the way back on his own. Going for help meant leaving Jon. If he did that, there was no telling where he might wander and there would be no way of finding him in the dark.
    “J-Jon, we r-really n-need to get inside.” Ellis hugged himself.
    “The wound.” The words came out in Jon’s voice, were spoken by his lips, but his eyes were not.
    The pools of endless black belonged to something old, powerful, and never human.
    It cupped Ellis’s jaw and warmth returned to his skin, easing the cramps in his muscles.
    “The light enters through the wound.”
    A surge of desperation, concern, love, and fear flowed into Ellis.
    “The plague is spreading but the light is stronger. It has the power to stop the sickness and heal the infected.”
    Sadness welled in Ellis’s soul until his heart ached with every beat.
    “Face the darkness without fear.” It caressed Ellis’s cheek with Jon’s thumb. “The plague cannot touch you.”
    “I don’t understand.”
    “Go to the Grove and you will.”
    The stranger in Jon’s eyes vanished.
    ********
    Jon sat on the bed huddled in a blanket while Ellis rubbed his feet.
    “Now tell me what I said again?”
    “You talked about the light.” Ellis worked Jon’s legs. “Can you feel your toes yet?”
    “They hurt. So, yeah. Light. What else?”
    “It enters through the wound.” Ellis adjusted the quilt draped over Jon’s shoulders. “And then something about the light heals and it’s more powerful than the darkness.” He went back to rubbing Jon’s toes. “I’m really worried you might have frostbite, the tips are still purple.”
    “I’m fine.”
    “It looks bad.”
    “It’s not frostbite, at least not quite.” His arms jerked and he tightened his hold on the blanket. “Just come up here and sit with me. The shared body heat will help.”
    “I’m not sure I have any body heat.” Ellis shivered, but not like Jon. It was like all the cold he didn’t feel when he was sleepwalking hit him all at once. He held open the quilt and Ellis slid in next to him. “Damn…” Jon shuddered. “I can’t stop shaking.”
    “Because you’re cold. At least you’re not shaking as much as you were when we first got back.” Ellis barely got Jon up the stairs. Near the door to the bedroom he collapsed and had to crawl the rest of the way. Getting him on the bed had been an Olympic event.
    But he was far colder than he should have been.
    “Do you want me to run a bath? The warm water might work better.”
    “Or it will turn to ice.” Jon laughed.
    Ellis leaned back against the headboard, taking Jon with him. He wound up draped over Ellis with his head on his shoulders. Jon’s shivering shook the entire bed.
    Ellis rubbed Jon’s arms and back.
    “I don’t think I’ve ever been this cold in my life.” Jon pressed closer. His icy skin leached heat from Ellis. “You’re warm.”
    “Not hardly.” His teeth chattered. “You’re just that cold.”
    “Take my mind off of it then. Tell me more about what happened.”
    “I told you.”
    “Yeah, the light and the wound. What about the Grove?”
    A chill ran down Ellis’s spine. It had nothing to do