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Stopping dead, I narrow my eyes.“What did you say?”

“They were going to rape Alexa.”She rubs her temples.“I had to do something.”

“What exactly did thatsomethingentail?”I ask with equal amounts of anger and dread.How dare she put herself in such a vulnerable position?

“I sent a swarm of prawns to, um…” She clears her throat.“To get rid of the Phaelix.”

I frown.“Prawns?”

“Huge, orange-brown insects with mean pinchers and hairy back legs.Unfortunately, when I sent them away after clearing the area, I didn’t know that the Phaelix live in treehouses and will jump on me from the sky.”

I grind my teeth together so hard I feel the crunch in my jaw.“If you ever do anything so dangerous again?—”

“I should’ve kept the prawns around.”She rolls her eyes.“Yes, I know.It was stupid to let them go immediately.In my defense, I’m new to all this fighting.”

I’m having a hard time keeping my voice even and not showing her just how much I’m fuming inside.“You’re not listening to me, Elsie.You’ll never?—”

“Don’t worry.I can’t try something like that again even if I wanted to.My power is gone.It seems the Phaelix who hit me destroyed it when he gave me the blow on the head.”

The scenarios she’s describing are enough to drive me to madness.It’s difficult to cling to reason through the haze of red that invades my vision.

“I’m kind of sad about it,” she says in a small voice.“I mean, about having lost my power.It was cool.”

Just like that, my anger vanishes, and my heart softens.A need to soothe her compels me to say, “Maybe it’s temporary.”

“Have you seen Betty?”she asks with sudden alarm.

I grit my teeth and remind myself that the priority is healing her.

“Aruan?”she says when I continue on my way to the cleansing room.

“No,” I say through a clenched jaw.

She searches my eyes as I climb down the steps and lower us into the water.“You’re still angry.”

Angry doesn’t come close to describing what I’m feeling.I sit down on the reclining bench, bend my knees, and settle her between my legs.“Lean back.I’ll take care of you.”

She does so reluctantly and gasps when the water washes over the back of her head.

“Sore?”I ask, gently scooping water over her wound.

“It burns like a bitch,” she hisses.

Holding her in my arms has a profound calming effect on me.As the knowledge that she’s safe takes root, the anger and tension flow from my muscles, aided by the salts I added into the water.

I even manage a smile as she tilts her head back and gazes up at me.

“You have a strange way of expressing yourself,” I say.“I’ve never heard that saying, burning ‘like a bitch.’”

“Earth lingo.”She grins and then sucks in a breath.“Ouch.”

“Easy, my sweet.”I brush a hand over her hair, avoiding the bruise.“You’ll feel better in a bit.I promise.”

“Why don’t you undress when you get into the water?”

I arch a brow.“Do you want me to undress?”

“Don’t put words in my mouth.You know what I mean.”