His heart stopped beating when she leaned against him, her gasps gone, her body frail. He blinked away his tears as he reached to check her pulse.

She was still alive.

Barely.

Richard had to fix this. He had to. Failing wasn't an option. He couldn't sit and hold the woman he loved until her last breath escaped her fragile body. He couldn't do it. He wouldn't do it. His mind started racing.

The books earlier had offered no help. The only thing he gathered from them was that additive magic could not heal subtractive magic.

He was the Seeker. He could do this, find a way to save the woman he loved. He leaned back, pushing her forward slightly. Her head dropped to her chest, her breath coming out in ragged huffs. She looked as if she was covered in ash, the magic in her veins not subsiding. Her skin felt like ice. Her body was light and had no weight to it. She was like a doll.

But she was a doll with a pulse.

Richard started rubbing her arms with his hands, attempting to have the friction cause heat and warm her body a bit. Instead, he felt a shock and retracted his hands. The magic was preventing him from doing anything. He repeated the action around her neck and received the same shock. The poison was much like the Keep, having defensive barriers that only those with specific attributes had access to. He had to find the crack, the one thing that would allow him to seep in and save Kahlan.

What did Richard have that this magic didn't?

His thoughts were going in all different directions, and he couldn't latch on to one for more than a fleeting moment. He let her fall back into his arms, wrapping them around her tightly. He was getting frustrated, knowing that no one could save her except the Sisters that did this to her.

He had to save her.

Kahlan's breath was coming in shorter intervals now, her body growing even colder to the touch.

He couldn't save her.

A Wizard of the First Order couldn't even come up with a solution that might work, how could he? He was a simple woods guide with an extreme ignorance to magic. He felt his whole body give up, and his tears started falling even more, making his vision blurry and his face coated. Each time he would try and blink away the moisture, more would just take it's place. He felt like he couldn't breathe, the lump in his throat blocking his airway. He started coughing as he gripped tighter to the cold woman in his arms, crying and whispering devotions to her. Her body molded wherever he positioned her, her limbs weak and nimble. She didn't even stir. Her breathing was now nothing more than a slow exhale.

Richard wrapped his arms tighter around her, pressing her against him as he cried into her shoulder, his tears falling down her blackened flesh. He couldn't speak, so he just thought.

"Kahlan, I'm sorry I have failed you. I want so badly to save you, protect you - but I can't. I'm not able to. I don't know enough about what's inside you, what's preying on you. I know I can't save you, save our child. May the Keeper offer me clemency." His body was spent, tears no longer able to form. "I don't deserve what you've given me. I'm a man who is ignorant to magic and in turn, ignorant to what has killed you. I wish I could take this sickness and project it onto myself, leaving you to live and myself to die. All I've ever wanted was to make you happy, Kahlan. But all I've succeeded to do is put you in harms way." Richard sighed into her skin, feeling the final breath escape her lungs. "You are my life, and even in death my world will surround you. I love you, Kahlan Amnell. I love your beauty, your strength. Your playful ways and independent nature. I love how you are commanding yet kind. I love your stubbornness, your unwillingness to change. Everything you are is everything I've ever needed, everything I've ever wanted. And I've lost it all."

Richard had never felt so empty in his life. His chance at a family with the woman he loved was gone. Richard felt as if the poison was slowly seeping through him, claiming him as well. He continued to hold Kahlan tightly against him, refusing to believe she was actually dead. He poured everything he had into her, his love and devotion to her, his admiration and attentions.

He felt incredibly warm, his body was tingling. He ignored the feeling, grasping onto Kahlan for dear life, begging her to breathe again. It had only been seconds since her breathing stopped, but to Richard, it felt like an eternity. He coughed and sobbed, his body so over wracked with sorrow that tears were being forced. When he looked to his hands, they were flushed. He kissed the top of Kahlan's head, whispering sweet nothing's into her hair.

He wanted more than anything for her to spring back to life.

The warming sensation didn't leave him, and kept him with his arms wrapped around Kahlan for minutes. Richard had given up hope, but wouldn't let go of her. He didn't want to pull her away from him just to see her lifeless form, her face forever resembling one of no emotion. He looked to her shoulder, where his head was currently residing. The poison was disappearing, leaving her veins and restoring Kahlan's skin to it's original porcelain color.

Richard was going to kill every single last Sister of the Dark.

Then his heart stopped. She was breathing. Not short and ragged breaths, but long and steady ones. He pulled her away, noticing his skin was now back to it's tan color. When she was at arm's length, he looked at her.

Her blue eyes were fluttering open. Her body was back to a normal temperature. She was swaying, but was also fully in control of her motions. She was exhausted. When Kahlan's orbs fully opened and settled on his, his heart felt it would combust.

He quickly swooped her up in his arms, cradling her again, as if she were a small child. She didn't object, her body still trying to comprehend what was happening, just like he was. Her coherency was coming back, her face no longer slack. He was weeping tears of joy.

Richard had found the crack.