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It does occur to me that there is probably a reason why he won’t go to sleep, other than the fact that he wants to make sure that Kylen doesn’t pull any creepy shit again.

“So, did anything interesting happen while I was asleep?” I ask, as I look out into the night.

“You snore,” Coen mutters, a familiar argument that brings an instant grin to his face.

Indignation lights my tone, “I do not.”

Ransom chuckles, “Yeah, you do. But River snores louder.”

I huff and then end up chuckling quietly and decide to change the subject instead of carrying on this argument, which in past experience has ended up lasting quite a while. “What about the creatures?”

“They keep trying to attack every now and then, but the ward is holding strong, and it’s only one or two that are trying. The majority of them are out hunting, I would assume,” Ransom replies.

“Well, at least that’s something,” I reply.

“That mark on Kylen’s face is really something, huh?” Coen asks after a moment of silence.

I try not to let my surprise at his words show in my expression.

Ransom nods, “Yeah. It’s pretty nasty. It will keep burning too until the spirit that inflicted it takes it back. He must have pissed off a pretty fucking powerful spirit.”

I don’t say anything as I continue to stare out of the cave entrance as the sky slowly begins to lighten. They definitely did that on purpose, giving me information that they both knew that I would be curious about, albeit in a slightly out of the blue way. I had sort of guessed that Ribit had done it, I had no idea that it had the effects that it does, and I can’t help but smile that the handprint is going to cause him so grief.

I’m going to give her the biggest hug when I see her next.

We all sit in companionable silence, although there is so much that I want to say, and quite honestly, I would much rather be sitting between them rather than at the end.

“I should probably get some sleep,” Coen mutters as he gets up and stretches. He nods at both of us and then heads back to where he was when I first fell asleep, lying down and facing the other way.

“Did any of the Draconian team come and help keep watch apart from Coen?” I ask Ransom after a moment.

Ransom shakes his head, “Nope, none of them have even stirred. I don’t understand how they are SID agents. They’re lazy, combative, and refuse to work as part of a team.”

I frown, “I have a feeling that today is going to be interesting, to say the least. They’re going to have to chip in at some point. That was the instruction, and more than that, if they aren’t putting any effort into keeping themselves alive, I won’t either.”

Ransom chuckles, “Well said. I think that’s a fair enough assessment. Although the instructions also said that we all had to get through the portal alive. I get the feeling that Coen is going to carry the weight of the team.”

I frown, we know that they’re a problem, and we know that Coen gets treated like shit. In the last trial that I did with them, I was too busy trying to stay alive to witness much of the way that they interacted. I haven’t even seen them together for that long, since the majority of them have been asleep, but what I have seen has pissed me off.

If I make it through today without punching one of them in the face for the way that they talk to and treat Coen, I will be incredibly surprised. I’m going to have to be really careful, because if I do react to something that strongly, then Kylen is going to realize that I know Coen or at least suspect something is going on.

I absolutely don’t want that to happen. Kylen will use it against Coen, and I won’t allow that.

It’s getting closer and closer to sunrise, and as it does, more of the creatures are returning to their caves. They’re flying a lot slower than they were when they first woke up, and although a couple of them glance at our cave, they clearly don’t think that it’s worth trying to attack us as they all fly into the cliffside. The higher that the sun rises, the fewer of the creatures we see until we don’t see any at all.

“The sun is almost up,” I point out after a moment of silence. “You should get some sleep while you can.”

Ransom sighs and nods as he watches the sun crest the horizon. “I am pretty sure that they have all gone back now. I’ll wake Doc up. He can keep watch with you until everyone else gets up.”

I nod, “Okay, sounds good to me.”

He stands up and then leans back over, dropping a kiss on top of my head, without even thinking about it. I smile up at him as his eyes widen slightly when he realizes what he’s just done. To be honest, the guys have all kissed my head or the back of my hand by this point, and I really don’t think that it matters. People will think what people are going to think, and like I decided yesterday, it may distract them from some of the other things that we do need to hide.

Ransom clearly thinks the same thing because he shrugs and smiles sleepily at me.

“Go and get some sleep,” I order when a blink lasts just a bit too long to be considered a blink.

“Yes, ma’am,” he grins, lazily saluting me and then heads to the guys.