“Scare me more, next time, please.”
“I’m okay. I told you, you are stuck with me.”
She giggled at the nape of my neck.
I put her down as Mom came closer and hugged me tight.
She kissed me on my cheek. “I’m so happy that you woke up, Blake.”
“Me too.” I pulled my hand through my hair and smiled at mom as she stared at me. “What?”
“I’m so proud of you. You just submitted.”
“Oh, crap.”
Elena laughed. “Yeah, thanks so much for that. I was ready to put up a fight. I trained bloody hard for that one.”
I pulled her closer to me. “I didn’t know that I could do that.” My lips brushed the top of her hair.
“Oh, and one other thing.” She sounded stern. “If you ever skin yourself again to make anything else, Blake Leaf—”
“Samuel,” my mother said.
Elena looked at her. “That is what the S stands for, Samuel?”
“Yep.” Mom’s lips thinned as her eyebrows raised.
“Blake Samuel Leaf. I won’t speak to you for a year.”
I chuckled.
“It’s not a joke. It’s barbaric.”
I looked at her wrist. She didn’t wear the bracelet. “Where is it?”
“Your punishment. I will not wear it.”
“Oh, come on. It’s yours. Just wear it, please?”
“You are an idiot.”
“Told you he got that from his dad. Not me.”
We both laughed. “Do you like it?”
“Yes, I do, but it’s not worth the amount of pain, please.”
“I heal fast.”
“No!” she yelled.
“Okay, fine. I promise I won’t do that again.”
“Thank you.”
“If you promise to put it on and never take it off.”
“Okay,” she said. “There are a couple of things we need to talk about too.”
