Page 82

Annabelle relaxed. She laughed as she pinched her daughter’s cheek. “I can’t wait until you’re cleared so I can slap the disrespect out of your mouth, little girl.”

“Ow, Mami!” Rowan fought off the hand and tried to sit up before she landed with a hard thud back on the bed.

Alessandro gently removed the hand and glared at Annabelle, who shot him an impressed look. He turned back to Rowan. “Please let Aqua check up on you before you try to move around again.”

Rowan sighed and nodded. “Fine, but keep that psycho away from me.” She turned and stuck her tongue out at her mother, who flipped her off.

Axel pushed past her mom to kneel at the bedside, “I begged dad not to let her visit you, but you know he can’t say no to her.”

Rowan smiled, “I figured. How long was I out?”

“About a week. Now answer honestly, how much pain are you in?”

Rowan winced. “7 out of 10, mostly coming for my back. If I’ve been here for a week, that explains it.”

“And your eye?” Axel raised an eyebrow.

“When I move the good one, the one that isn’t there feels sore.”

“It’s going to take a while for the pain to fully recede,” Aqua stepped into the room, relief clear in her eyes, “It’s good to see you awake Princess Rowan, I would like to conduct a quick checkup if our visitors would kindly step outside.”

Alessandro wanted to stay beside the woman who still hadn’t let his hand go, but he saw the stubbornness trying to settle on the other elven women’s faces. If he went, maybe they wouldn’t fight the request.

“We’ll be right outside.”

With her awake, he had to fight back his base urge to stroke her cheek for reassurance. He wouldn’t play with her feelings when he knew they wouldn’t work from the start.

Rowan seemed to understand that restraint existed in him because she gave a firm nod and squeezed his hand once more before finally letting go.

XOXOXOXO

Rowan’s entire being was in pain. She hissed as Aqua’s finger tips grazed over the eyepatch to remove it.

“7 out of 10?” Aqua raised an eyebrow.

“Okay, it feels like I’m going to shatter if I take a wrong breath.” Rowan was willing the tension to leave her body. But any relaxation only added to the already insurmountable discomfort.

“Your older sister told us you don’t deal with pain in the aftermath of battle very well, so we came up with this.” Aqua motioned to the IV hooked up to her arm. “My pill in liquid form for you to administer with this button to help manage.”

“You’re a genius.” Rowan sighed as the pain eased.

She still couldn’t fully relax, but as Aqua went through her check-up, the pain just kept disappearing until she felt as if she were floating inches above her bed. But that couldn’t be the case. Even with her muddled mind, she could tell the suppression necklace was a new design, and it almost completely cut off her access to magic.

She looked down at the simple golden chain. It smelled like Chloe, or maybe her friend had been to the ward recently because her scent of sour and sweet candies was as potent as her mother’s and Axel’s. Before she knew it, she was reaching for the clasp to allow more magic in so it could work to heal her as it always had in the past.

“No!” A whip of water pushed her hand away from the piece of jewelry.

Rowan furrowed her eyebrows and glared up at the dragon. “Hey, that’s cold!”

“Sorry, Princess.” Aqua looked panicked. Her wide blueberry hued eyes, flared nose and raised arms as if preparing for defense were Rowan’s aids for determining so, but the painkillers were killing her follow through actions and she relaxed against her pillows instead of questioning.

“I shouldn’t have done that.” Aqua said after a few moments of silence. “I really am sorry.”

“It’s no biggie.” Rowan waved the concern away and, in doing so, caught sight of the scar on the backside of her hand.

She had very few scars, Lexine and Miasma had always made it a priority to hide the less than graceful nature of the youngest princess from the people of the Eastern Elven Kingdom, but when she’d left the kingdom in pursuit of her magical disaster practice, she hadn’t always reported her wounds to her doctors unless they became life threatening. She half wondered how angry they had been to discover she’d accumulated half a dozen as they tended to her.

“How is the pain?” In Aqua’s hands was a small lacquer box she opened to show a collection of eyepatches of differing prints and shades.