“No, you don’t. But Yaroslav did me a favor and went to get me a list of things I asked for.”
“Yaroslav?” I blurt out, surprised again.
She sighs and rolls her eyes, glaring at me in silent annoyance.
I study her face, and for the first time, I notice how dark the shadows under her eyes are and how red her normally bright eyes are.
She's about to turn back to the tea when I touch her arm and draw her attention back to me. “Wait…did you sleep at all?”
She shakes her head, sighing softly. “I was…no, I didn’t,” she huffs.
“You stayed up the whole night watching me, didn’t you?” I ask gently, reaching up to brush a strand of hair from her face and tuck it behind her ear.
“I was worried. You were talking and having nightmares, and Yaroslav told me about Devil’s Tongue, and he said you were in hell, basically.”
My heart wants to collapse in on itself as I stare down at this beautiful creature who stayed at my side the entire time.
“I was,” I whisper. “I was in hell…but there was this sweet, beautiful voice that kept calling me back and pushing the darkness away.”
She bites her lip.
“That voice saved me last night. It would have been so much worse,” I tell her, cupping my hand beneath her chin.
Her cheeks begin to heat and turn a beautiful shade of pink as a delicate smile touches her lips.
“Yes, you did mutter something about a glowing pixie,” she giggles.
I can’t help laughing, but as soon as I do, my wound aches, and I groan.
She frowns and shakes her head. “You really shouldn’t be up. You need to stay in bed and get some proper sleep.”
“Oh, and you’re the doctor now?” I tease.
“Well, I’m the best one you have,” she sasses back at me. “Actually, that’s not true. Yaroslav told me what to do. He had to hold you down last night so we could clean the wound.”
I nod. “Yaroslav is a good man.”
“He is.”
I stare into her eyes, and a smile plays over my lips. “Thank you, little pixie. You saved my life.”
“I just cleaned up the wound and—”
“No. You got me to the car. You got me home. You very literally saved my life. That drug kicks in so quickly, I would never even have escaped those attackers. And even if I had, I would have bled to death in the car on the side of the road. Youliterallysaved my life, Izabel.”
For a long moment, we are locked in each other’s gaze. My heart is moving and shifting and filled with her. Her beautiful face. Her voice, still in my dreams. Her soft warm eyes.
Izabel shyly steps away from me.
She clears her throat and brushes her hands over the front of her jeans as if she’s nervous about something. “Well, um, you should drink the tea while it’s still warm, because it tastes pretty bad when it gets cold,” she says gesturing to the tea.
“You’ve had it before?” I ask.
“Yes, I went through a phase and got into herbal remedies, and whenever I got a virus or sick or something, I would drink it.”
“And did it work?”
“Yes, I think it did. Maybe it’s all in the mind?” she shrugs.
