Page 18 of A Dragon's Miracle (Fires of Fate)

“Velzen?” I felt like I'd heard that name before, but the pertinent information was kind of fuzzy in my head.

“It's a plant that grows up on the volcano. It'll help you sleep. My mom used to make me drink it all the time when I was younger.”

I laughed. “Were you getting on her nerves?”

He grinned. “Maybe a little.”

I grabbed the cup and took a sip of the tea. It tasted a little like peppermint, only sweeter. “Not bad.”

“Yeah, I kind of like it too.”

I nodded and finished my soup like a good boy. Once I was done, Finn whisked the bowl away from me and rinsed it in the sink. “Are you going to come to the dinner thing?” he asked over the sound of the running water while I drank my tea.

“Yeah, I guess so.” I set the cup back down when I had to cough again for what felt like a full minute. Whatever Finn might have seen in me before, I was definitely not sexy tonight.

“Are you okay?” My friend was standing next to me when I looked up, concern etched into his features as he put a hand to my forehead. The sudden touch startled me, although it wasn't unwelcome.

“I'll be fine,” I said. “I just need to sleep this off.”

Finn eyed me suspiciously.

“What?” I asked.

He drew his hand away. “It's just... You sound like you're speaking from experience.”

“Oh... Yeah, I get this every now and then. Don't worry about it.”

He gave me a half-hearted smile. “You always say that. Don't worry about this, don't worry about that... I wish you'd just stop giving me things to worry about. Because you know I do.”

“I'm sorry.” I didn't know what else to say. I couldn't stop being sick. And I couldn't do much about that other thing either...

Finn shook his head. “Let's just get you into bed.”

His choice of words made me laugh.Can't wait to get me into bed, huh?I almost, almost joked. Then I remembered that I'd rejected him only a few weeks before and I really didn't want to hurt him again. He deserved better. And so I simply drank the rest of my tea, stood from the table and crawled under the covers of my bed.

I truly was sleepy now, although I didn't know whether that was because I was sick or because of the meal and the tea. It might have been a bit of both, but I could hardly keep my eyes open once my head hit the pillow.

I tried to stay awake because I hadn't said goodbye to my guest yet, and how rude was that, but Finn took care of that by sitting on the mattress and running his fingers into my hair. “Goodnight,” he whispered, and I let my eyes fall shut. And I wasn't sure whether it was my imagination or not, but Ithoughtthat I felt him kiss my forehead as I drifted off. It was a nice feeling. I wanted to fall asleep like that always.

If only that were possible.