Recovery

by Layla Heart

  “It still worked.” He trails his fingers over my cheek. “I did intercept her. Nobody else got hurt. That’s what counts.”

  I nod, but seeing him get stabbed, or watch his life flow away... It was horrible. Maybe one of the most horrible things I’ve seen, not counting watching Rune almost die not even a week ago.

  “I’d do anything to keep you safe. You know that, right?” He keeps looking at me, his eyes almost vulnerable and I quickly nod. Of course, I know that he’d protect me. Like there would ever be any doubt about that. Heck, we met because he saved me from some plant that attacked me that first day. He’s always protected me.

  I take his hand, kissing it softly and then putting it to my cheek, holding him there. “You know that I’d also do anything to protect you, right?”

  His eyes darken a little, but then he nods. “I wish you didn’t have to.”

  “We all wish that.” I smile a little. “But with the prophecy and all that, I don’t think we can count on anything ever becoming easier. I suspect that we’ll always have to protect each other.”

  There’s a soft knocking on the door. “Finn? Litha?” It’s Phoenix.

  “Come in. We’re awake.” I sit up a little, my body still a little fuzzy from using so much magic yesterday.

  “And decent?” There’s a teasing in Phoenix’ voice.

  “Am I ever?” I tease back, and she opens the door, stepping inside.

  “Just wanted to check on Finn. See how things are going.” She carefully comes over, reaching out to him, and her hands glow. “How are you feeling?”

  “Could have been worse.” He shrugs, which makes him wince, as the movement pulls on the wound.

  “Could have been, yes. Luckily, it isn’t.” Phoenix pulls her hands away and takes the bandage off skilfully. The bandage is keeping a small compress in place of the same stuff they’d used on Rune and Bane, to numb the area and to keep the pus from getting too bad. “Do you know why?”

  I also look at Finn, curious about his answer.

  He looks out the window, his eyes going dark. “I don’t know why she didn’t just kill me. Maybe she was over-confident that the venom would be enough.” He takes a slow breath as Phoenix cleans up the wound and reapplies the bandage. “Or, this is worse, there’s more going on and this was just another diversion. Maybe my death would have been the best outcome, but my being hurt could also have a function... I don’t know. I wish I could say something useful, but we’re missing a lot of pieces in their plan right now, and that’s just... Not good.”

  “Like, what?” That doesn’t sound right. “What would be the use of harming you, if not to kill you?”

  He frowns. “That’s what I’ve been trying to figure out too.” He looks down at the bandage, then at Phoenix. “Your healing is awesome. Huge difference between that and what happened with Bane and Rune.”

  She shrugs, smiling softly, almost shyly. “It’s just because we were able to get to you so quickly. But it’s still going to take a while for you to recover. You need to take it easy for now. Try not to disturb the area too much.” Then she stands up. “Kit and Bane are making breakfast. They sent me out of the kitchen before I could even offer to help...” She pouts a moment, but then grins and I can’t help grinning myself.

  “I don’t blame them, after yesterday.” Finn laughs a little, but then winces. “Breakfast would be nice, though.”

  “I’ll get you some.” I climb out of bed, looking around for something to wear, but only finding yesterday’s clothes and I have no idea where my own suitcase is right now...

  “You can wear one of my shirts,” Finn calls out and I find his suitcase at the foot of the bed. I open it and pull out a dark green shirt which looks really soft and comfy.

  “Or you could not wear anything...” Phoenix muses as she leaves the room, leaving the door open behind her.

  I look after her for a moment, still holding the shirt in front of me.

  “If we’re supposed to actually get work done today, I don’t think that’s the best idea.” Finn snickers, and when I look at him he’s looking much better, his eyes even shining.

  “Maybe not.” I wink before pulling the shirt on. “I’ll be right back.” And I follow Phoenix down the stairs.

  Finn is right, we’re not here to just hang out, we’re here for a reason. A very important reason...

  “Are you sure this is safe?” I’m standing in the middle of some circle Phoenix has drawn around me. She didn’t really explain what it was supposed to do, just that it would help with my magic.

  “Safe? No. Not at all.” She finishes the final runes around the circle and looks up, her eyes blazing with excitement, and I’m not sure if she’s kidding or not right now... I keep staring at her, until she shrugs. “It really isn’t.” She shakes her head and stands up. “This circle is supposed to amplify your magic. Even people who don’t have offensive magic should be able to use offensive magic while using one of these.”

  “What?” I stare at her for real now. That doesn’t just sound unsafe, that sounds seriously dangerous...

  “I found it in a book last night. Seemed interesting.” She shrugs, stepping back a little.

  “And you thought it would be a good idea for me to test it?” Because I’m not so sure...

  She nods. “Yeah. At least your powers are safer than mine.” She winks. “Okay, try to burn that pile of wood.” She points to a neatly stacked pile a while off. A pile we just built for like half an hour...

  I shrug, holding my hands out in front of me and sending my fire to it. The fire from my hands hits the circle and then turns into an even bigger beam of it.

  “Cool.” Phoenix nods. “Now, put the fire out.”

  I stop, then look her way. Put the fire out?

  “Try to smother it, or something. Make it go out.”

  Right... I look at the fire, reaching out. How would I get the fire to stop? Well... not having anything to use as fuel would help. I guess. I imagine the fire being pulled from the wood, and after a while, as the final traces of wood are burned up, the flames go out. “Like this?”

  Phoenix steps next to me, also looking at the wood, which is now scorched, but no longer burning. “I guess that works too. The amplifying circle seems to do what it says. Cool.” She breaks the circle, tugging me out of it. “Let’s see if the guys have come up with a plan or something inside.”

  “A plan?” Really, I’m not sure what they’ve all been up to in these last hours. First, I had breakfast with Finn, then Bane came up and we made cookies for some reason and now this spell-thing with Phoenix. It’s like they’re trying to keep me busy or something...

  In the living room, Finn, Kit, Rune and Bane are sitting at one of the tables, a stack of books and a lot of paper between them. They’re talking in low voices but quiet as soon as we step into the room.

  Right. “What are you doing?” I go over to them, and when I see what they’re working on, I stop, my heart beating fast. No. No way... “Guys?” I stare at each of them, not really wanting to believe what I’m seeing.

  The maps on the table are from the fae kingdom and there are also maps of what I believe is a house, a really big house... They’re not just planning on practising their powers here, they’re planning an attack...

  7

  Litha is definitely not happy when she sees the maps and things on the table. I can feel her pain but also her confusion. I wish it didn’t hurt her, that this would be easier, but we can’t just sit around, we can’t just wait for the fae king to attack us again.

  “Why?” She shakes her head, taking a step back. “Why now? Haven’t we had enough of this shit in the last week?”

  “Because we need a plan.” Bane stands up, carefully reaching out to her. “We’re not planning on leaving right now. Or any time soon.” He looks back at us and we nod. “But we do need to prepare. We need to know what we can expect if we go in there. If we do attack them...”

  “And then what? Get killed?
Wiped out? Slaughtered right in front of me?” She holds up her hands, her skin shimmering red, her magic very close to the surface, almost ready to burst out of her skin. She’s in pain, a lot of pain, pain from the thought of losing even just one of us.

  “No,” Finn speaks up, and her head whips in his direction. “We won’t get killed. Because we’re going to prepare ourselves. We’re going to do what the others can’t do. What Kit’s family can’t do. What Bane’s family can’t do. What Phoenix and your family can’t do. You’ve got someone who knows the area. Me. I know most of the defence mechanisms my dad has in place. We can prepare ourselves in ways that nobody else can. We’re only a small group, sure. But we’re surrounded by some of the best books available on how to train for an operation like that right here. We can learn about anything we need to know to make this work and actually survive it. We’ve got all we need right here.”

  She stares at him, tears appearing in her eyes. “We’ll get killed. Slaughtered.”

  “No. We won’t.” Bane shakes his head resolutely. “We won’t because we’ll be prepared. We’ll have a plan. We’ll be trained beyond what they expect. All of us here, we’re six people who trust each other implicitly, if we combine our powers, we’ll be better than anything they can throw at us. Imagine the cool things we can do if we combine our skills.”

  She still looks confused and I remember that she hasn’t seen how we protected her when we were under attack in the town.

  Finn looks at Phoenix, who nods, and he takes a deep breath, wincing as it pulls on his wound. “When you were out, after using too much magic, Phoenix and I realised something. I can use my electricity to move things which are magnetic, and she knows a spell which lets her change the properties of some metals, including making them magnetic. I didn’t need to get close to the soldiers who attacked us, I could very precisely throw knives their way, while also keeping control of most of them. I could even call them back to me so I wouldn’t lose them.”

  Litha eyes Phoenix, something going on in her head as she slightly narrows her eyes, then she nods, and her energy changes, she’s getting scarily calm suddenly. She straightens her back, pulling herself up some. “Fine. But under one condition.”

  “Yes?” Bane nods, as surprised as the rest of us.

  “We don’t use crap like venom. We don’t use things that bring pain before killing someone. We’re not doing that to them. Not after the way it hurt all of you. We’re above that. Incapacitate people, fine. Make them pass out or whatever. But we’re not going to inflict needless pain the way they did. We’re not.” She steps forward, her magic growing in her, but her eyes are dark and hard, scary. I wouldn’t want to be on the other end of that fury, not now, but definitely not when she’s got more control of her magic... “If there’s no other way, we give them a quick death. But we’re not going to torture them.” She looks at each of us and one by one, we hang our head, before nodding. I can feel her pressure on us, the way she makes sure that we’re not going to ignore her. She’s quiet for a little longer, before deflating. “Good. Now. You said that you wouldn’t leave right away, right?”

  I nod, looking up to her.

  “Good.” She steps closer to the table, a new power in her movements. “Because three of you are in no state to fight anyone right now. We’re going to need time, weeks probably, for everyone to heal, and to learn everything that we need to know. Time we won’t have. But I’m not going in there until you’re all healed and ready. I’m not chancing it. I’m not losing any of you.”

  I know she’s right. I hate it, but I know that she’s right. None of us are in any state to fight anyone, apart from maybe Kit and Phoenix, but sending those two on their own doesn’t seem like a good idea... I need to be able to shift, to get my dragon back, before we attempt anything, and maybe find a way to make sure the venom doesn’t influence us that badly anymore... Find a way to become immune to it, in case we do run into people carrying it...

  Lots of things we need to do, and we don’t have time to do all of it. We’ll have to make most of the time we do have, because I’m not letting anything bad happen to my hoard, not again, not anymore.

  The stuff Finn keeps giving me to keep the dragon away is starting to wear off again and I’m getting nervous about what happens if it does wear off. Not that I think it would be that bad, I’m not in much pain anymore, but I also have never attempted to do something like this in the past.

  I groan, putting a book about dragon shifters and fighting strategies to the side and close my eyes. I’m in bed, trying to rest my leg a little again, I did a little bit too much yesterday and the pain is worse today than yesterday morning, though, mostly, it’s stiff. Though the blackness is fading a little bit every day, my thigh is still mostly black, and the stab wounds are very slow to heal. I keep putting all sorts of stuff on it, hoping for it to heal faster, but it’s just a waiting game.

  “Are you in pain?” Kit looks up from where he’s reading, in a chair by the window. “Do you want me to get you something?”

  I shake my head, reaching out to him instead. “It’s not my leg. The anti-shifting is wearing off.”

  “Ah.” He also puts his book down and comes over, sliding in bed next to me, his arm over my chest. “You’re scared.”

  “Yeah.” I sigh. “I never thought I’d be scared of being a shifter. Or that anyone I love would ever be scared of my dragon.”

  “I’m not—” I put my fingers to his lips to stop him.

  “You are. And that’s totally understandable. I nearly ate you.”

  “Your dragon nearly ate me, and Litha.” He takes my finger into his mouth, sucking on it as my dick immediately responds.

  “Same thing. I promised that I’d never put you in any danger, and I did.” I sigh, pulling him closer and nuzzling into his hair, closing my eyes. If there’s one thing that I know will calm my dragon it’s having Kit with me, staying close to him, Kit and Litha.

  “You know what?” Kit plays with his fingers over my chest.

  “Hmm?” I kiss his hair.

  “Even though I was scared, I wasn’t... scared. I don’t know. I knew that your dragon wouldn’t really try to hurt me, he’s too protective of me for that. He was simply trying to do the best he knew.” Then he leans up a little, looking at me with his warm eyes, a soft smile on his lips. “And that’s the same as you. You’re one and the same, even when it doesn’t always seem like that. I promise.”

  I shake my head slowly. “Still...”

  “No.” His voice is resolute. “No. Don’t go there. You’re in a much better place now. It’s time. It’s time to welcome him back and learn to work together again.”

  I stare up at Kit, growing even harder, and his eyes darken as he can feel my emotions, making lust flare in him.

  Then, right as he leans in for a kiss, we’re interrupted by loud knocking on the door and I groan. Finn.

  “Yes?” I push myself up a little more so I can look at him better.

  Finn opens the door and steps inside, his eyes careful as he closes the door behind him. He looks at Kit for a moment and then takes a vial out of his pocket. “I know that... Ehhh... It’s starting to wear off. Right?”

  I nod. “I don’t think I’ll take more. Litha was right, we need to recover, and part of that will be getting my dragon back.”

  He eyes my leg. “And the pain?”

  “Stiff, but not too bad.” I frown. “Also, shouldn’t you be resting?”

  He pulls one shoulder up, wincing. “Got bored. Felt like I needed to move around for a while.”

  Right... “Go rest. Honestly. It’s no use having two guys who’re too stubborn to take the time to heal.” I smile and he grins back.

  “I’m sure she knew that when she got into all this.” He lets out a short laugh and then steps back. “If you’re okay, I should get back to my reading... We’ve got a lot to learn. A lot.” He levels a look at Kit, whose fingers have already started to wander down my chest, to my cock.<
br />
  “I’m learning.” Kit smirks and Finn rolls his eyes as he turns around, ready to leave.

  “As long as you make sure not to impede on his healing...” His words are low, but with a tease in it, as he slips out the door, closing it audibly so that we know he’s left.

  Hmm, even our stuck-up fae is starting to get looser when it comes to sexual situations. I wonder if we’ve been corrupting him...

  Nah.

  8

  After everything that Litha said, I’ve started to look at the books on the shelves a little differently, more seriously. There has to be a way that we can use them and actually win, there has to be a way to use them to our advantage.

  Right now, we’re a group of barely-trained teenagers, and we’ll probably have to face a lot of well-trained soldiers and stuff like that when we go to the fae kingdom. So we need something to even the field, anything, and the answer has to be in these books somewhere.

  “What are you staring at?” Litha plays her fingers over my back, sending shivers down my spine.

  I laugh awkwardly, surprised. “Nothing. Which is kind of the problem...”

  She steps next to me, putting her head on my shoulder, her arm around my waist, making herself comfortable against me. “Any books about magic we can use?”

  I point to the top shelf in front of us. “Offensive magic. Make things go boom and things like that.” I point to the middle two shelves. “Location and other navigation magic. How to find your way, how to find someone or something else, whatever you want.” Bottom shelf. “Random stuff I have no idea how to interpret. Seems to be a mix of all sorts of things.”

  She laughs, such an easy laugh, making me smile too, tension leaving me a little. “Lots then. Too much.”

  “Yes.” I slide my arm around her waist, pulling her closer. “But I feel like we need some sort of plan before we dive in. Something to work towards, a guide, a map, anything.”