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Zaria dismounted like she’d been ryding her whole life, and I shifted back to my fae form. I was just about to take the bag from Zaria so it couldn’t harm her when Kiera swept through the doors and tossed me a pair of sweatpants.
“What have you two been up to?” she asked, puzzled to see us here when everyone knew we weren’t flying yet. Before I could hit her with the news, another healer came out onto the landing and drew up short at seeing us there.
I threw Kiera a glance. I knew she could read a ‘go with it until we are alone’ look.
Nodding toward Sol, I told Kiera, “Zaria burned her hand. It was faster to scoop her up and fly her up here than walk her here in pain.”
“I tried to catch a lamp that got knocked over. I’m so silly.” Zaria laughed, seamlessly filling in a suitable lie to appease the other healer.
“I’ve got this, Sirena,” Kiera informed the other fae, coming forward and inspecting Zaria’s bound hand. “You go back to monitoring our other patients. I’ll be along in a while to check their progress.”
Sirena, who looked young and nervous, was obviously new and shadowing Kiera. “Yes Healer Noreth.” She dipped her head in deference and disappeared back into the healer’s wing.
I stepped into the pants and straightened, making sure the younger fae was out of earshot. “We have another problem, too,” I said in a hushed tone. “But burns first. Her hands and neck.”
“Come,” Kiera instructed and turned on her heel. We followed her past the small wards where recovering patients stayed, past the rooms where they performed healing magic, and through to Kiera’s personal rooms where she did her research. “Have a seat.” She waved toward her sitting area and went to her cabinets for supplies.
I took the bag from Zaria and set it on the workbench Kiera used to prepare ingredients, then took a seat beside Zaria, helping her out of the flight jacket so she didn’t scrape her burned neck.
Kiera returned and began assessing the burn on Zaria’s neck.
“Are you going to tell me how this really happened?” she asked as she got to work, cleaning and applying a magical ointment I knew would have it healed before morning.
“Dark fire,” I admitted.
Kiera turned a fierce scowl on me.
“I wasn’t careless.” I held up my hands in defense. “I swear. It was necessary.”
“When I saw you, I worried something had gone wrong with that energy tonic I gave you…” Her look was meaningful. She wouldn’t speak of the potion out loud. “Tell me it wasn’t that.”
“No,” I assured her. “The tonic was exactly what we needed, thank you.”
Her brows rose. “You took it already?”
“I did.”
She had slipped the vial my way when she delivered reports to me that morning. Maybe she thought I would wait before going through with my plan.
“Did it help?”
I nodded. “We have answers, but we also have more questions.” I lowered my voice, but we were safe in her space. As long as the potion was never spoken of aloud, we were okay. “Zaira’s necklace was the problem. I had to use dark fire to melt it off her, hence the burns.”
I slipped my hand into Zaria’s uninjured one as the guilt for having to hurt her to free her of that thing ate at me once again. Kiera’s eyes widened.
Zaria winced as Kiera swiped ointment over the worst looking welt. “Show her,” she urged.
I suspected that Zaria just didn’t want me hovering over her while she was being treated. I had to admit it was a huge turnaround from hardly being able to be in the same room together, but a lot had happened in a short amount of time.
I was not unhappy with the change.
I let Zaria go and went to the bench, carefully removing the bundled shirt. I placed it down to opened the fabric, spreading it out to reveal the pendant.
Kiera glanced over but returned her attention to Zaria, unwrapping her hand and treating it first. “Is that all of it?” she asked as she finished applying the ointment.
“Nyx has burns, too.”
“I’m fine,” I grumbled.
