Shaelith huffed from where she was sprawled against the wall. “Italmostworked.”
Fenric whirled, jaw tightening. “Almostgot you killed.”
“Details.” Brynelle winced as she cradled her ribs.
Darian let out an uneven sigh, dragging a hand down his face. “I swear to the fucking gods,” he grumbled. “You are allimbeciles.”
Before I could even attempt to sit up, a shadow loomed beside me.
I turned asCindrissian knelt, hands hovering, assessing my injuries. His focus settled on mymangled leg,taking in theunnatural angle,the way my hand trembled where it braced against the ground.
I knew that look. It was the look of a male already calculating exactlyhow much damage had been done.
“I’d say I’ll walk it off,” I rasped, a humourless smile tugging at my lips, “but that might be a little difficult.”
A pause.
“I suppose crawling is always an option.” The wordsstartled me.
Not because of what he said, butbecause it was Cindrissian.
Cindrissian—who never joked, never played. But there it was.
Shaelith blinked. Brynelle stared.
I snorted. Actually snorted.
And for a moment, the anger in the room ebbed.
But then?—
Varyth.
He’d been so still, so silent in the corner that I hadn’t even noticed him.
But now, he stepped forward, his entire body vibrating with fury.
“What the hell did you do?”Theroarthattore from his throat shook the fucking walls.
The airrippledwith power that shouldn’t have been there,not with the collar wrapped around his throat, suppressing his magic.
And yet itleaked from him, poured from him. His rage too vast, too consuming to be contained.
Silver eyes burned as the fullforce of his wrath slammed into me,into all of us. A muscle in his jaw ticked violently, his hands flexing at his sides, as though he was physically restraining himself from grabbing me and shaking some sense into me.
“Do you have any idea what you’ve done?”He gesturedwildlyat the three of us, then cut his glare straight at me. “You could have been killed. Youshouldhave been killed.”
I lifted my head from where I had braced against the ground, every part of meaching, bruised, screaming.
“Would’ve saved us a lot of trouble,” I said, voice hoarse. “At least then I wouldn’t have to listen to you yell.”
The sound that tore from Varyth’s throat was pure animal.
“Gods-damn you, Isara.”He stepped closer, his powerpressingagainst me, against all of us,suffocating. “You’re bleeding, you can’t move, and you think this isfunny?”
I hissed as pain ripped up my leg. “Little bit.”
Varyth’s wingsflaredbehind him, his hands raking through his hair, as though trying to physically force thefuryfrom his body. His headtipped back for one long second, his chestheaving, before his glaresnapped back down to me.
