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Torj was there, Farissa and Wren close behind him.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
It was as though Wilder had stolen all the breath from her lungs. Without him pressed against her, she was suddenly cold. Thea had to stop herself from touching her fingers to her lips, instead she masked her expression and greeted Farissa and Wren.
‘I’m so glad you’re here,’ she said, pulling her sister into a hard embrace.
If either alchemist had an inkling as to what they’d just interrupted, they didn’t let on. Wren simply squeezed her back, enough for Thea to know that Torj had filled them in on the events of the evening.
Thea showed them inside, where Torj and Hawthorne were waiting.
‘Through here,’ Hawthorne said, leading them through his cabin into the bedroom.
To Thea’s relief, both shieldbearers were awake, albeit weak. ‘You’re alive.’ She rushed to the bedside.
‘Just,’ Kipp managed with a wince as he tried to sit up.
Guilt lanced through Thea. Not only was it her fault that her friends had endured such suffering, but while they’d been lying in their sickbed, she’d been outside pawing at a Warsword.
Her face must have visibly fallen because Kipp reached for her hand and squeezed it. ‘We’re alright,’ he told her. ‘Or at least, we will be.’
Cal, however, said nothing.
Farissa and Wren stood in the corner of the room rummaging through a large bag for various tinctures, and Thea couldn’t help but look at the horrible marks on his wrists again. She forced herself to nod and blink back the tears that stung her eyes. ‘What happened?’ she asked. ‘How did he get you?’
Kipp’s cheeks reddened. ‘In plain sight. As we were coming out of the dormitories, someone grabbed us, put a cloth over our mouths that was soaked in some sweet smelling poison —’
‘What exactly did it smell like?’ Farissa interjected. ‘If we can identify it, we can make a tonic to counter any remaining adverse effects,’ she explained kindly.
‘Uhhh… Cal?’ Kipp asked. ‘What do you reckon?’
‘I don’t know,’ Cal said.
‘Right… Well, I guess to me…’ Kipp paused, frowning. ‘It smelt… sickly sweet, I… I can’t remember it now.’
‘That’s alright, lad,’ Farissa assured him. ‘What happened when you inhaled it?’
‘Everything slowed down, didn’t it, Cal?’
Cal didn’t reply, so Kipp forged on. ‘I got all dizzy and then everything went black. Woke up in that cave hanging from my wrists…’
Tears stung Thea’s eyes. It had been one of the worst moments of her life, seeing them like that.
Farissa was nodding to herself. ‘Ah, I think I know what they used then.’ Without another word, she returned to the corner to confer with Wren.
Seeing Wren, Kipp brightened. ‘Elwren, come to visit me at another sickbed. We should really stop meeting like this.’
Wren snorted. ‘Perhaps you shouldn’t get yourself into so much trouble.’
‘It’s all worth it if it brings you closer to me,’ he told her brazenly.
If Thea hadn’t been so close to tears, she would have laughed.
‘Do you ever let up?’ Cal gave a weak chuckle, seeming to come back to himself. ‘What of the lovely Milla at the Laughing Fox?’
‘And what does a shieldbearer know of the Laughing Fox?’ Torj commented from the doorway.
‘Uh… Nothing, Sir. Nothing at all,’ Kipp stammered.
