One of my brows arched.Bleeding?Raising my neck, I looked to where her fingertips touched my skin. She was busy cleaning a wound next to my navel, the gash spurting a consistent flow of blood with each rising breath I took.
I let my head fall back to the ground where I enjoyed the sight of nature for the first time in I didn't even know how long. We were in the forest, and the sky above me was a deep shade of orange, the glare of the sun almost faded into the night.
I heard another voice. One even more familiar than hers.
“How’s it going?” Sawyer asked her as he appeared standing over me. I looked up into his face, and he smiled, wiggling his fingers in a ridiculous wave. “Hey, baby. Long time no see.”
I cleared my throat with a cough. “Hey,” I croaked, choking on the single word.
Biting the inside of my cheek, I recoiled when Maeve added more pressure to the wound. I cursed, closing my eyes and holding my breath to fight back screaming.
“You guys almost done?”
Kade.That was Kade’s voice. He had saved me.
Wait a damn second.
Why thefuckwas Maeve here?
I could feel my eyes darken. I fought Maeve's hand trying to hold me down, and I forced myself upright. My anger masked every ounce of pain I felt.
“Why in the gods names did you bring her with you?” I hissed at Sawyer, and instead of giving me a serious answer, he said some typical Sawyer bullshit.
Smirking between Maeve and Kade, he said, “I told you he’d be pissed.”
Chapter
Twenty-One
MAEVE
When Venay and Pia worked together, they were real life miracle workers. Venay’s enchanted herbs and supplements mixed with the healing magic of the two, made Sebastian look ten times better than he had that morning when we arrived back in Lumosia.
It was nightfall now, and Sebastian was still asleep. I hadn’t left his side since we returned from Draemor. He wasn't able to stay conscious any longer than a few minutes on our ride back, but his eyelids had just begun to flutter, and I knew that he would soon return to full consciousness.
Kohen had woken up the morning after we left, thank the gods. Having spent my entire day with Seb, I hadn’t seen him yet. When she came to visit, Pia swore that Kohen didn’t remember a thing about the ritual, which was a relief. The guilt I felt for putting him through that was brutal on my mind, but knowing we had the journal in our clutch thanks to it brought me some ease.
My thumb rubbed the back of Sebastian’s hand, tracing the outline of a new scar he donned in his tanned flesh. “I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I’m sorry it took us so long to get to you. It should have been me.” My eyes watered, but I stared into a lantern on the wall, using the bright light to keep them dry.
Sebastian began to murmur, his lips parting ever so slightly. I leaned forward, pulling my chair closer to his bedside. “Seb? Can you hear me?”
He blinked a few times before his eyes stayed open, though his eyelids were heavy and struggling. I granted him a smile full of pure release, then dropped my forehead to our hands as the tears began to fall.
He shuffled, releasing a groan of pain as he tried to move his broken body. “Don’t cry,” he said in a sharp whisper.
Typical Sebastian—cheats death and his first words are spent consoling me.
Lifting my head, I wiped my nose. “These are happy tears. I am so relieved that you are here right now.”
He gave me a broken smile. The pain behind his eyes was too much to hide, though he tried.
Taking his arms, I helped him sit up, gently pulling on his shoulders before returning my hands to his. The covers slipped down, revealing his abdomen and the hundreds of scars that now covered it.
“Fuck, Seb.” I chewed the inside of my cheek and ran a finger lightly over the wound I had worked so diligently to heal in the forest. It had been scabbed over when we first found him, but split open again during the bumps of our travels. “What did he do to you?” My voice cracked.
“It doesn’t matter. I'm here, I’m alive.”
Anger blew through me like a tornado. “It matters. He will fucking pay for this,” I hissed.
