“Mother!” His call preceded his quick stride, and I tried to protest. He was moving toward the dining room, and I couldn’t appear at my birthday meal covered in dirt and blood.
But Harvey ignored my mumbled words, bursting into the room in the most dramaticfashion possible. Cries and exclamations broke out, and a chair crashed to the ground.
“Really, this isn’t necess—” I started to say, my words dying as I caught a glimpse of Faylee’s concerned face.
Tears welled in my eyes at the knowledge that she would soon be looking at me differently. But the view of my guests was replaced with the face of my mother, shock rendering her silent for once. Her comforting presence released something inside me, and with all the fight gone, darkness swooped in to take its place.
CHAPTER 4
Iwoke in my own bed, feeling alert and well rested. But I jolted upright as soon as my memory returned, frantically feeling my injured arm. I could detect no sign of any injury, however.
I fell back against the pillows, gasping. Had I imagined the whole thing? I couldn’t possibly have been sleeping long enough to heal completely.
“She’s awake!” The bellow made me startle so badly I nearly toppled out of bed. I glared at my youngest brother, but he was turned toward the door shouting again for our mother.
“Are you trying to shatter my ear drums on top of everything?” I growled at Timothy, who at fourteen was all gangly long limbs and who usually preferred to communicate in grunts.
“When Harvey carried you into the dining room, you looked like you were dead,” he said at a more normal volume, twisting back to me and grinning.
“Well, clearly I’m not,” I said shortly, not wanting to think about the embarrassing moment.
“Even for you, it was a dramatic birthday meal.” He leaned back in his chair. “And to think I thought it was going to be boring and tried to get out of attending.”
I narrowed my eyes at him, but I couldn’t muster any true antagonism. From the position of his chair by my bed, he had been watching over me, waiting for me to wake.
Then he continued speaking, extinguishing my goodwill.
“And now you’refinallyawake, so Mother will have to let me free. Did you have to sleep so long? I’ve been dying here.”
I pushed myself into a sitting position, glaring at him. “You’vebeen dying?”
He grinned. “Well, you just said you weren’t.”
My lips twitched, and his grin widened. Sandwiched in the middle of four brothers, I knew better than to take their sallies personally. For their part, they had decided years ago that I was a good sport and treated me accordingly, much to our mother’s dismay.
Two tall figures appeared in the doorway at the same time, shouldering each other in their efforts to squeeze into the room first. I sighed at both of them but directed my words toward Anson.
“As the oldest, shouldn’t you show a little more dignity?”
He scoffed. “Mother has been making us spend every spare minute that we’re not at work kicking our heels at home. Anyone would think we were keeping vigil at your deathbed! I need to see with my own eyes that you’re awake and I can finally be free.”
Ellis, the brother between me and Timothy, snorted. “A tragedy, indeed! All the girls at the market must be despairing at the absence of their favorite flirt.”
Anson smirked back. “Only the pretty ones.”
I sighed loudly. “Are you trying to make me sick again?”
All three of them rushed quickly to my side, jostling each other as they plumped the pillows behind me and straightened my blankets.
“Dearest Aria,” Ellis said. “Is there anything you need us to fetch? We are utterly dedicated to your full recovery.”
“Yes, I can see that,” I said dryly. “What was Mother thinking keeping you all chained here?” I held up my arm and moved it around experimentally, still unable to find any trace of the injury. “I’m completely fine. What in the kingdom happened?”
“Faylee,” Anton said promptly. “Mother always said you’d done well coming to her notice, and she was proved right at last. Faylee had a healing composition on her, and she insisted on using it.”
My brows rose. “Faylee was carrying a healing composition able to fix an injury like that?”
Timothy shrugged. “She said it was a side effect of that expedition into the mountains with the Sekali princess. The one that made her famous. She said she always keeps a stack of healing compositions on her.”
