“Is that fine with you?” Hallea asked Silver.
After a long look at him, where Kat was sure the Alpha was measuring either his soul or his body for a coffin, Silver nodded. “Yes. I’ll help get him situated in your spare room. Make sure to call us immediately when he wakes up.”
Kat quickly agreed.
CHAPTER3
With a steady hand, Xavier finished the final rune. Each symbol was placed at an equal distance from one another to form the perfect healing circle. As he tended to his cut arm, Xavier admired the design. Years of careful work had gone into this idea. His final project for his Blood Mage Mastery depended on it working. If it didn’t… well, he didn’t want to think about what Master Melcori would do. His mentor didn’t suffer fools lightly, and Xavier didn’t want to extend his apprenticeship another year and miss out on the title of the youngest Blood Mage in a century.
For years, he had worked diligently through good and bad times, and he refused to fail during the final weeks of his apprenticeship.
One more month to go.
He could do this.
Bang! Bang!
The loud pounding on his door broke his concentration. If this weren’t an emergency, they’d find themselves the guinea pig of his healing runes.
He yanked the door open. “What?”
Zabria, his best friend and Blood Seer, smirked at him. “Sorry to interrupt you, oh mighty Blood Mage, but your master is calling.”
“Ugh. What does he want? He was the one who told me to work on my project and ignore any interruptions.”
“I somehow doubt he meant his.”
“Serves him right if I did,” he grumbled. “Sorry I snapped at you.”
“It’s all right. I’m used to your surly company by now.” She pinned Xavier with a serious look. “I want you to agree with whatever Melcori tells you, even if it sounds like he’s lost the plot.”
“Why?”
Zabria bit her lip, and Xavier sighed. “Are you scheming against me again?”
“When have I ever done that?”
“How about when you broke Master Jans’s favorite crystal ball and claimed my project caused it to shatter, even though they had nothing to do with each other?”
“I just wanted to see who would win in a drag-out fight between Jans and Melcori. I didn’t know Melcori was so protective that he would stab her and then use her blood in a ritual to blind her for a week.”
“It almost got you kicked out.”
Zabria laughed. “I’d have to do something much worse for that to happen. I’m the best seer in the history of this place.” She flipped her hair and planted her hands on her hips in a dramatic pose before giggling and dropping her hands.
“They might prefer three mediocre seers to all the trouble you cause,” he teased.
She sniffed and gave his statement the attention she felt it deserved.
After a minute, Xavier continued his interrogation. “So, you don’t know what this is about, or you just want to torture me?”
“I–“ She wrinkled her nose and gained that familiar faraway expression. “I can only see bits and pieces, but in the end, you’re the happiest I’ve ever seen you.” She shook her head as if to reset her vision. “I did hear in the rumor mill that Melcori kidnapped some dryads.”
Xavier groaned. “That must be why he had me read that book on nature magic. If he drains a Grove of dryads, I’m going to use the ritual knife he gave me and stab him myself.”
A snort escaped Zabria despite her stoic expression. “I don’t think he’s going to bleed them. They appear relatively healthy in the future.”
“Then what does he want with them? Wait, I might know.” His mind raced as he remembered the section on dryad gems.
