Page 101 of Glass Hearts

“How can we know to trust you? If you haven’t seen anyone come out of it, how do you know what to do?” Arabella asksweakly. Her voice is hoarse from all the screaming. My heart constricts further as I take one of her shaking hands in mine.

“You will just have to trust a little, Blondie,” Jax adds from the side, dark circles under his eyes. Smith looks to be holding him up.

Swiftly and suddenly, Elliah forcefully stabs the syringe into Grayer.

“What the fuck?! That’s my brother!” I roar.

“And I am saving his fucking life, unless you would rather your brother be in stone form forever? Back. Off.” Elliah growls back at me as he continues to inject the substance into Grayer.

I feel Arabella’s other tiny hand caress my arm.

“Let’s trust him, my love. I need him back. We need him back.” All I can do is nod as I watch him continue to slowly feed the mixture into Grayer.

“We are going to need to remove the blade and heal him. So we may need to carry him to the medical bay of the castle. But we will need to be quick. We don’t want him to lose any more blood. If he does, then he will die of blood loss.Notbecause of me.”

“No need. I am a healer.” Alec strides over, as Sylas moves, letting him take his place.

“Alright, pool prince, I am going to need you to slowly take out the dagger,” Elliah asks me, but before I can, Sylas intercepts me.

“I can do it if you want, brother.”

“No, I need to do this. I need to help.”

Already I can see Grayer’s body relax, the rigidity of his body softening. The pink hue to his previously paled complexion comes back, and I slowly take out the dagger. Alec is already on the other side, mending his wound.

When Grayer groans, Arabella is already pushing away from Archer and me, patting at his face.

“Grayer? Please tell me you’re alright?”

“Fuck,” is all he mutters, and we all break out in a relieved sigh. The tension leaves our bodies as Alec continues to use his magic to heal all his internal wounds.

“My love. Grayer,” Arabella whispers in reverence.

“Can’t get rid of me that easily, Duchess.” He winces. Arabella cries as she laughs, bringing her forehead to his.

“I would like my pleas of gratitude now, thank you very much,” Elliah says, swiping the sweat from his brow.

“Yes, thank you, but what took you so long?” Archer asks.

“Well, when I saw the scary bitch stab the pyre prince, I noticed how he went straight to stone. And like I said, I have seen the spell before. That’s when I knew I had to go get the poison berry leaf to mix with my counterspell elixir. But of course, I had to go to the forest outside of the castle grounds. Little thief- what did you do to that woman?!” He points at Bernice’s shredded body. We all seem to notice at the same time.

It’s a brutal scene of unrecognizable flesh and blood. My stomach feels queasy at the sight. Arabella seems to pale too.

“Max killed her for me. I just had my serpents restrain her.”

“Ha! Brutal. Remind me not to get on your bad side, Blondie!” Jax says as Smith smiles and shakes his head, chuckling.

Grayer’s eyes shut, but his chest is moving.

“The fire prince may need to rest before he fully comes to,” Alec says as he swipes the sweat from his brow.

“Thank you for everything. I-I don’t know how I can thank you enough.” I help Alec up off the ground.

“No need, son. You are all my family, and I would always come to save you,” Alec says, squeezing my shoulder before I go in for a hug. Breaking the hug, he goes into Margie’s open embrace. He will need to rest after all the magic he used today, too.

“Now, about those ingredients…” Elliah croons.

Sylas wipes his hand over his face, exasperated, and turns to Bri.