Page 190 of Vameer

I should hardly feel safe, considering we were attacked this very night. But I’m confident that if anything came for us, this druid could handle it.

“Volik will give you extra venom,” I tell the druid.

Volik huffs. And Dread narrows his eyes.

I fight the urge to smirk, wondering if he’s going to out the fact that I have my own venom now.

Instead of answering, Dread sighs. Then places his hand on the ground beside his hip.

“Is this a yes?” Volik asks.

Dread’s eyes glow as gold spreads from his hand to the ground beneath him. “Do not wander.”

The gold beneath him turns black. He drops through the portal. The portal disappears.

“Clever,” Volik says, then has his gravito carry him, like mine did, to the tree beside mine.

I hum.

Dread is more than clever. He is startlingly impressive.

But I won’t tell anyone what Dread did. Not even Volik.

And not because I don’t trust my brother. But because you never know when ears might be listening. And I may have been on the verge of dying, but I know what I saw. And I know it’s a secret that risks the druid’s life. So I will bring it to my grave. Because he saved Rune.

He saved My Heart.

He saved me.

So his life is mine to protect now.

No matter what the battle, I will stand beside him.

My hair snags on tree bark as I turn my head to look at Volik. “The one who did this. Who hurt Rune.” Volik meets my gaze. “It was King Tosa.”

His brows lift.

The forest glows gold.

And Dread steps out of a portal before us, a bottle in each hand.

He drops one in each of our laps, then walks back to his tree a few paces away.

Volik reads the label. “Rum?”

Dread sits without a reply.

Volik lifts the bottle, tiny sparks of magic within shining in the moonlight. “Rum is great.”

I keep my arm behind Rune’s back and bend my opposite knee, using my thigh to keep her legs pressed against me.

Holding the bottle in my free hand, I bite the cap and twist the bottle, opening it.

After spitting the cap into the grass beside me, I take a drink.

The magic tingles as it slides down my throat.

And after my second swallow, I tell them what happened.