“I’m so sorry, Kai. I’m so, so sorry.” The floodgates open and I sob into him. He holds me tightly, burying his face in my neck.
“Don’t you dare apologize to me. None of this was your fault.”
I pull back to examine him, the tears making my assessment a bit more difficult. His color is better, his eyes not so sunken in. There are a few scars on his forehead from where the rocks pelted him.
“It was, though.”
“Serena, he stopped the beatings.” He wears a somber expression as he searches my face. “What did it cost?”
I give him a mournful look. “Not nearly what I would have paid to make sure you were safe.”
“No one”—he breaks off, eyes filling with tears—“has ever done anything like that for me. No one.”
I look him dead in the eye.
“You are my friend. There is nothing I wouldn’t do for you.”
“Ditto, savior.”
He cracks a beatific, watery smile that melts my heart and I pull him into my arms again, needing to convince myself that we both survived the horrors of Kylian’s captivity.
We survived together.
“Pardon the interruption.”
Mar breezes into the tent with two tiny strips of cloth stuffed up her nose. I raise an eyebrow as she plops down in front of us.
“The things I do for you.”
I give her a smile. “Thank you, Mar.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, thank you Mar for agreeing to burn my limbs off. Let me see.”
I place my grizzly hands in hers.
“Kai, is your leg—” I glance down at the gauzy bandage wrapped around his thigh.
“Loads better, thanks to Mar. Still a little sore, but I’ll be back on my feet in no time.” He pats his leg emphatically, then winces.
I have to hold in my gasp as Mar unspools the bandages aroundmy wrists. They look even worse beneath the cloth, but at least the cuffs are off.
“Your body should start to heal itself without the constraints of the blood ore. That combined with my healing should fix you up almost as good as new.”
“Mar, you should be resting. You’ve used more power in the last few days than you have in decades.”
She shrugs, waving me off. “It feels good to flex the old muscles.”
Tingles work their way up my arms and I pull forth my own healing energy to mingle with hers.
“Does that thing ever get tapped out?” I nod toward her moonstone ring—the one that stores her remaining magic.
“It will never dry out completely. But it does deplete the same way all of yours does. The nosebleeds tell me when it’s running low.”
Zadyn ducks into the tent, pausing in the entrance.
“You’re awake.” There’s a hint of a smile on his face, but it doesn’t reach his dimples. “How are you feeling?”
“Not bad, all things considered.” I hold up my scorched hands in explanation. He takes a timid step closer, pointing to the space beside me.
