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Barbas met my gaze when my voice cracked on the last word, his eyes reading what I refused to say aloud.
“Are you intact?”
“What matters is they were smart about this. They took out the biggest muscle first and didn’t hurt you so severely as to be brought up on charges of trial tampering.”
Something that would only happen if they’d attacked Barbas while he possessed a human. If they’d hurt him badly enough, Barbas wouldn’t have been able to return to his body, and all the souls he’d collected would have been forfeited.
“Are you intact?” he repeats.
Since I was the only one left after the group of seven demons incapacitated Rhygel and Typhon, I took the brunt of the beating while I protected Barbas’s body.
Barbas grabs my chin, forcing eye contact. “Brother. Are you irreparably injured?”
I flex my shoulder and show him my ruined wing.
Broken in three places, they made sure it wouldn’t heal easily.
The feral snarl Barbas looses on my behalf has a strangely comforting effect on my nerves. “We’ll fetch a healer.”
I can’t help the bitter laugh that falls out of me. “Can you walk? Because I sure as shit can’t.”
Typhon groans again behind us, and Barbas and I simultaneously shout his name.
“Typhon!”
“Typhon, you old brute. Wake the hell up!” I call.
Barbas snags a broken chair leg and chucks it at our brother. It bounces off his head, but Typhon doesn’t stir.
We call Rhygel’s name, but whatever sedative they were dosed with hasn’t worn off enough for them to fight yet.
“We just have to wait it out,” I say and fall against Barbas’s lap.
What feels like moments later, I startle awake yet again because of a thud. But this time, I’m not on the floor of the living space. And I can open my eyes most of the way.
Also, I’m in my bed, lying on my stomach with my wing bandaged around hard splints to keep it open and immobile.
“The council refuses to do anything about the attack despite the clear breach of rules.”
Ah, yes. Rhygel yelling about something.
Home sweet home.
And the thud that woke me? The door slamming as he returned from chewing out every council member he could find. At least that’s my head canon of events I wasn’t awake for.
Whatever the healer has given me to dull the pain clearly hasn’t affected my mind, so that is a plus.
I stand carefully, and Barbas, who I hadn’t realized was even in my bedroom, is quick to offer help.
“Go slowly, friend. Allow me to support you.”
Normally, I’d push him away. But I did need his help.
“Thank you,” I say as we get my feet under me.
He tucks himself under my left arm when I start to sway back and forth.
“Easy, Mal. Take your time.”
