The four of us arrived back at the townhouse, groaning as we shook out of our soot and gore-covered armor and dumped it onto the floor at the foot of the staircase.
“They’re back!” Avery shrieked from the kitchen as she came barreling through and went to throw her arms around Lia. Once she noticed her attire, she slowly lowered her arms and gaped. “Oh gods, what happened?!” she whispered as her eyes roamed over all of us frantically.
Lia reached out and grabbed Avery’s hand, pulling her into a hug at the princess’ dismay. “Well, I’d say we won this round,” Lia said cheerfully as she held her sister's squirming body tightly to her own.
Avery pulled away from her as Veli stalked into the room and took in the sight of us. “You all look awful,” the witch greeted.
“How’s Landon?” Lia rushed out. “I should’ve checked on him earlier. I feel terrible.”
Veli sighed. “He’ll live. He’s lucky, though.”
“Thank the gods,” Lia breathed. “Is Finn with him?”
She answered with a nod, but then her violet eyes narrowed in on the gash in my arm that was working to slowly heal itself. “You’re injured.”
She lifted a talon, and a second later, the burning ache in my arm began to fade. We all watched in awe as the wyvern’s blood extracted itself from my wound, levitating in the air before falling to the floor. A sizzle echoed through the room as a burn mark appeared on the wooden floorboards.
“Curious thing, wyvern’s blood,” Veli said as her eyes remained on the mark, her head tilting to the side as she examined it.
“Don’t even get me started,” Lia hissed, her stare fixed on the gash in my arm.
Sensing her anger growing, I swiftly switched the subject back to what we were previously discussing. “Lia, why don’t you go get some rest? I’ll check on Landon.” Her gaze snapped up then, eyeing me warily. “I want to thank him for the sacrifice he made.”
My mate lifted her hands and rubbed aggressively at her eyes as a yawn escaped her. “Okay, fine. I’ll see them tomorrow. I’m going to take the longest bath known to fae kind and sleep for, hopefully, a year.”
Moving a step closer to her, I pressed a kiss to her forehead as I rubbed away traces of ash across her cheek.
She smiled up at me. “You know I’d ask you to join me, but I’m afraid of what’s about to wash off of me.” She chuckled.
“Couldn’t possibly be worse than when you arrived here all those weeks ago,” I teased, and she scoffed as she playfully swatted at me and then ran up the stairs.
Zaela groaned. “Don’t take forever in there, Lia! There’s only one tub,” she mumbled the last few words as she stalked toward the kitchen in the back.
I turned to the sorceress. “Thank you for that, Veli. It’ll just be better if we all talk about it tomorrow. She hasn’t slept in days.”
“Aye, but neither have any of you,” she said before following Zae.
I glanced toward Avery, who was standing there pretending not to be sneaking peeks at Gage while he moved to sit on the settee.
I blew out a breath and turned to move upstairs. I was halfway up the flight when I heard Zae yell from the kitchen, “Getoffthe settee, Gage! You’re filthy.”
I shook my head, chuckling as I continued my ascent.
My hand lifted and knocked softly twice on the bedroom door.
“Come in,” Finnian called.
I slowly creaked the door open, and my eyes fell on Landon as he worked to sit up, wincing at the lingering pain.
“Oh, thank the gods, it's you. If Avery checked on us one more time, I was going to lose my mind,” Finnian huffed.
I smirked. “Your sisters mean well.”
“Well,oneof them does,” he joked, but then his eyes softened. “Actually, you’re right. I shouldn’t make such comments. Not right now.”
I closed the door behind me and took a few steps closer to them. “How are you doing, Landon?”
He laughed softly. “Well, I’ve been better, but I’m alive. Lia came back with you, right? I would like to talk to her, but mainly thank her. I know I was out of it most of the way, but I was conscious enough to know she carried me on herback.”
