Page 13 of Entwined
I watch as he gently examines the wound. A whimper escapes Felicity, but her lashes don’t lift. I shift my weight, crossing my arms and then dropping them, hating the hopelessness surging through me.
He hums thoughtfully, and I burst out, “Can you fix her?”
He lifts a shoulder. “Yes.” There’s a long pause before he slides me a look from the corner of his eye. “But you know it comes with consequences.”
I press a hand to my sternum, right where the rune carves the skin of my chest, knowing he’s talking about us. “She’s not dead, or near to it,” I protest. “This isn’t like that.”
He shakes his head. “All magic comes at a cost, but this kind requires a higher price.”
I step closer. “So you’re saying youcan’thelp her? Fuck.” I scrub a hand through my hair. “I should’ve just taken her to the infirmary.”
“I didn’t say I couldn’t help her.” I throw an impatientlook at him, but he’s focusing on Felicity, his eyes narrowing as she lets out a low moan. “Hold her steady.”
I edge around him so I’m next to her legs, leaning down to place a hand on her waist and thigh. Felicity seems to relax under the firm touch…as if her body recognizes me and who I am to her, even when her mind refuses to.
Vaelor hits me with a searching look, not moving for a beat. And then another. I tip my chin down. “Get on with it.”
He exhales slowly and nods, leaning forward to press a rune-covered hand to her head, his palm centered over the wound.
She whimpers. “Steady,” I murmur, my wolf letting out a reassuring rumble through my throat, even as I pulse my fingers gently against her skin.
I look over at Vaelor, waiting for something to happen, but he just sits there, his fingers curled around her scalp, his forehead creased. I frown, looking between the two of them, but nothing happens outwardly. I’ve never seen him do this before, but then again, he’s never done this before—except for when he brought me back from the brink of death.
The longer he sits here, the more drawn his expression becomes, lines carving into the skin around his mouth and eyes.
“Vaelor?” I ask. He shakes his head sharply.
I clamp my mouth shut, focusing on Felicity. It looks like her cheeks are brightening up, but maybe that’s just wishful thinking. Another minute passes, and then Vaelor sits back on his heels with a sigh.
“You okay?” I ask quietly, eyeing him with concern.
“Yeah,” he mutters, reaching up to touch his head.When his hand drops, his fingertips are bright with blood. My eyes widen.
“What the fuck…?” I whisper, and he shoots me a grim smile.
“The price,” he answers, shifting the strands of Felicity’s hair to show the gash on her head is gone, leaving only reddened skin behind.
CHAPTER EIGHT
vaelor
My head throbs like a bitch, and with every pulse, the urge to find Selena Thierra and strangle her increases. I want her face to go purple and her eyes to bulge, filling with panic as her oxygen-starved brain slowly accepts her fate—six feet under, and no longer a goddamn problem.
I can take a fair amount of pain, so the fact that this fuckinghurtstells me just how badly Felicity was injured, and that’s not going to stand. We made a public claim on her yesterday, and Selena knows that.
“Shit,” Connor curses, letting go of Felicity to grab a rag and press it roughly against my head.
“I got it,” I grunt, shoving him away and holding it there myself. “She needs to be dealt with, though.”
Connor opens and closes his mouth, his expression dazed. He flicks a glance at where Felicity’s still out of it, and then back at me. I twist my expression into a scowl.
“Selena, asshole.” He shakes his head again, and I have to really knuckle the urge down to punch him. “The bitch who fucking attacked our girl.”
“Oh, yeah,” he mumbles. “We can’t kill her, though.”
“Why the fuck not?”
He doesn’t deign to answer, just pinning me with an unimpressed look. We’re both distracted when Felicity rolls onto her back, her eyes slowly dragging open. It only takes seconds for panic to set in, and we watch as she scrambles to sit up, edging herself into the corner of the settee, frantically searching the room.