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“Oh, please keep them,” Lenny sighed, realizing he was asking futility.
“Thanks,” I told them, turning to retreat down the road.
My guards would be along shortly to meet me, but I wanted to be at the site when they dug Agnan’s body from the pile of rubble. Elix was safe now and would recover with the best healers in the kingdom, if not Mystara.
I could allow myself to worry about what had become of Agnan now.
My tongue ran over my teeth again, tasting the blood that had long since washed down my throat when I’d taken his jugular, but not seeing his last breath drawn weighed on me.
I wanted to give Elix definitive news when she woke up.
Agnan had to be dead this time. We would not let him come back and torment anyone else again.
Chapter 20
Elix
Ishould have known that Jace was going to bring me back.
There was no doubt in my mind that I had been teetering on the brink of death, if not already gone, when he lured me back with his love. From the abyss, the darkness that I had fully succumbed to, I heard him calling me.
And I had returned.
Tears sprung to my eyes when I recognized my surroundings. Gone was the creepy, cozy farmhouse that had no connection to me, except for bad memories.
“Jace?” I mumbled, turning my head toward the door. Dread flooded my stomach, snatches of the final moments before my latest blackout hitting me with terrible force. “JACE!”
The door opened, and Cirilla hurried through, fueling my panic.
“There you are!” she cawed with forced cheer, placing a cool hand on my forehead to check for a temperature. “You gave the healers a scare.”
“Where’s Jace?” I whispered, cotton lining the insides of my cheeks and throat.
“He’s on his way back,” she reassured me. “He’ll be here shortly.”
“Back from where?”
“Shh, never mind that,” the enchantress insisted. “You need to rest now.”
“Cirilla, I’m not a child. Where is he?”
A wry grin spread across her features. “No, you’re not a child, are you, Elix?” she agreed. “In fact, we’re very lucky to have you here in the kingdom.”
The door opened wider behind her, and Jace hurried through, looking rough, and I struggled to sit up and greet him.
“Jace!” I gasped, terrified for him.
“Leave us,” he told Cirilla, who busied herself at the nightstand with water for me. I accepted the glass gratefully and thanked her as she bowed, disappearing without protest.
I chugged the water and set it down to free my hands for Jace, my head clearer than it had been in days. “What happened? Are you okay?”
“I am… because of you,” he replied, perching at my side to take my hands. Eagerly, I let him hold me, his dark eyes searching my face worriedly.
“I’m all right now,” I promised. “But Agnan? Lysandra?”
“We have the body,” Jace explained. “You left quite a mess there.” He chuckled dryly. “It’s going to take some time to go through the rubble.”
A stab of pain pierced my heart. “This wasn’t Lysandra’s fault,” I mumbled. “She was just under his spell.”
