CHAPTER 37
Rudgar
A lmost dying in a battle while protecting my female had one single perk that I was going to take advantage of until my dying breath. It meant that she was all over me every single time she thought about it.
“I don’t know what I would have done,” she gasped, running her palms down my still-healing chest. “If anything had happened to you.”
After a few moments of realizing that I wasn’t going to pass out again, she’d taken the time to send the bodies of the males on the field through the portal and back to their realm. Then she’d sealed that portal so that none of the warlocks or their kin could open it from their end.
The last thing she’d done before everyone trudged to the cars to go home. Dristan had eyed me as if he’d wanted to lift me the way he used to when we were children.
I was far too dignified for that. Instead, I’d stood on my own—or with a little help from my brother, if I was going to be fully honest—and limped my way forward.
And now I was splayed on the sofa while my female fawned over me.
This is the life.
Everyone was milling around, making sure that I was okay, but it was long moments before Tasia moved close to us, asking Zara,
“Is it possible to open a portal so Gabbi can come home?”
I looked at my female, trying to gauge how exhausted she was—because I could see it in the stoop of her shoulders and the drooping of her eyes.
“Of course,” she murmured, but I gathered her into my arms, shaking my head.
“Can she have a moment to recover?” I asked Tasia and she nodded, even as I could see the worry swirling in her eyes. “She’s safe there with Papa Bois,” I explained. “And Pen and Becca are with her.”
Dristan and Rok shifted on their feet, glancing at each other behind me, but I pretended to ignore them. I wasn’t going to allow my mate to lose consciousness. They were safe, and that was what mattered.
Zara had used so much of her magick that she needed a little break before she used it again.
“That’s nothing,” she denied, shaking her head, but I felt the weakness as she tried to pull away, and I shook my head.
“Just five minutes,” I insisted, and they all nodded. I looked up at my brother, and that was all her needed from me before moving to the kitchen. The scent of hot cocoa filled the air not long after that.
“We’ll get out of your way and let you rest,” Krusk said. Savla agreed, but Enka’s gaze was locked on Tasia in a way that had something niggling at the back of my head.
I didn’t have time for that, though. I waved at them as they left our apartment, and allowed Zara to slump against me. I ignored the pain in my chest where I was certain a rib had been cracked, if not broken.
It was healed now, but a tender ache was still there.
The coven all settled into seats around us, slumping with their own exhaustion as my brother handed out steaming mugs. Both he and Rok looked keyed up and energetic.
We’d barely been able to get into the meat of the battle before everything had been over. I was certain they were feeling the same way. I’d left the rest to them, but with the protection barrier stopping the enemies’ spells from working on us while they were barely able to wield swords, it had almost been too easy.
I was glad, though. If it hadn’t been for that, I wouldn’t have seen when Zara had been hurt. The memory of her falling to her knees was a nightmare I would relive for the rest of my life.
“I’m okay now,” she told me, stroking her fingers across my chest after a few minutes of silence. “I can open the portal.”
She pulled away, and I released a grunt of displeasure when I felt how weak she was. I was going to force her to stay in bed with me for a month. I was going to bully my best friend Darak into taking over for me for a while, and we were going to take a real vacation.
We were going to a beach and we were going to sip on frilly drinks and relax until we were fed up of being in paradise. I narrowed my eyes at her as she stumbled a moment before lifting her wand. The purple shimmer of a portal formed, slower than before, but still there, widening until we were able to see the other side.
Dristan and Rok were through it before it was fully open. Tasia didn’t have a moment to move forward. A giggling missile launched itself at her, racing forward as if portals were an everyday occurrence.
And maybe to a baby witch, it should be.
“Bonjour, vieux Papa,” Zara murmured, dipping her head in a bow. The deep chuckle on the other side from the hooved old man was mischievous.
“I see you did what you needed to do,” he told her, nodding his head once. “Good.”
“Finally,” Zara said, her voice lower than usual. “Thank you for protecting them,” she told him, earnest gratitude seeping from her voice. “We owe you so much.”
A small harrumph came from the other side as Rok and Dristan stepped back into the room, their mates in their arms.
“It was nothing,” Papa Bois said, stepping through the portal, his hooves clipping against the hardwood floors. “And you can call on me in the future if you need to.”
“Thank you,” Zara whispered, a smile spreading on her lips.
“Here,” Papa Bois told her, holding his palm out to her. It was craggy and calloused, covered in dirt, but she didn’t hesitate. She took it and a pulse of white light swept out of his palm into hers, spreading through her until she was enveloped in it.
I stood, my chest throbbing a protest, worried about what was happening, but the light dissipated and I saw my mate, hale and whole, blinking as the exhaustion disappeared as if it had never happened.
“W-what did you do?” she asked, her eyes wide.
“A small gift,” Papa Bois said with a shrug, turning to look at me. “And you,” he told me, his hands moving to his waist. “I see you protected her.”
I nodded, looking from Zara to this solemn male with dark eyes that were filled with a sacred wisdom that I would never be able to understand.
“Good,” he said, “And I expect you to continue protecting her,” he added, narrowing his eyes at me, but there was no way I needed to be threatened about that.
“With every breath in my body,” I told him, and he harrumphed before pressing his hand to my chest. The thrum of healing that ran through me almost made me drop back into the sofa again. Every ache and pain was eased, and the headache that had been brewing disappeared.
“I’ll hold you to that,” Papa Bois said before turning and moving back to the portal. It was sealed before Zara had a chance to close it.
We all blinked at where he’d left, a little confused and a lot awed, before turning to each other.
“I don’t know what the hell that was,” Zara laughed, holding her arms out in front of her, purple sparks leaving her fingers, “But I feel brand new.”
“Us too,” Tabitha said, shaking her head in disbelief, aiming her fingers toward Gabbi, conjuring a butterfly to land on her nose.
Her uproarious giggle made everyone smile until she tried to grab the butterfly from the air.
“Oof,” Tasia called, spinning her away, her eyes wide with horror.
It was everyone else’s turn to laugh, relief and joy filling us now that we were all back together. I moved to stand next to my mate, cuddling her close to me before pressing a kiss against her delicate, sweet lips.
“I love you,” I told her, and she squeezed me to her, repeating the words against my chest.