Page 78 of An Invocation of Monsters

He had moved on to one of Kiraxis’s brawny legs. The Mlul’dra’s clawed feet were tensed, his thigh completely soaked with blood. The spear had pierced the large muscle, and Kiraxis exhaled as Toth gripped it.

It was the small sigh that infuriated me. He was strong, and powerful, and seeing him in so much pain that he couldn’t even muster a roar made my heart feel like it was being crushed.

How close had he come to death? If I hadn’t slipped under the bed into his cave, would the extra minutes of Toth racing to find me have made the difference?

“It is done.” Toth threw the last spear aside. He wore blood up to his elbows like gloves.

Before he was even done speaking, I lunged for Kiraxis.

I pressed my hands into the warm, gory wounds, closing my eyes. The power that lived inside me woke up, rushing through me and turning my body into nothing more than a conduit.

Little by little, Kiraxis’s wounds closed. From somewhere far away, I felt sweat beading on my forehead as my hands moved over him of their own accord.

From Toth, I had learned that healing the monsters was easier than healing humans. The power slipped right through me and into them, whereas I had to force it through when I tried to heal people.

It was the struggle that made the extent of Kiraxis’s injuries clear.

Even though the power flowed through me like a river, his wounds closed so slowly. My hands were coated with blood, slipping over him to find the next injury, and I was terrified he would bleed to death long before they closed.

I heard the soft flutter of wings and knew Toth had gone, but I didn’t open my eyes. The Mlul’dra lay like a dead thing under my hands, doing nothing more than breathing.

I moved from wound to wound to wound, absorbed in nothing but the flow of power.

It felt like hours had passed before the sound of his breathing evened out. He no longer rasped and bubbled with every breath.

“Elle. You’ve done what you came to do.” I didn’t remember Toth coming back, but he was there at my side, holding something in front of me.

My bleary eyes focused on it, hands taking it without feeling. He raised it to my lips, and the first sweet-sour taste brought me back to the present.

It was a bottle of lemonade. He’d cleaned his hands and opened it for me.

The sugar hit my veins, waking me a little even though I felt utterly wiped out. I hadn’t realized I was shaking from the sheer amount of effort I’d put into the healing.

The Zizhatl moved around Kiraxis, tipping a bottle of water into his open mouth, then pouring more over the wounds and washing away the blood. Toth examined the healed injuries, and I felt a touch of guilt when I saw the knotted, silvery scar tissue I’d left behind.

Toth’s gaze flickered up to mine. “Do not blame yourself. He is alive, and that is what matters.”

“Scars are sexy,” Kiraxis breathed with some effort.

I wanted to laugh, but the exhaustion was so deep I couldn’t muster one. I shouldn’t have been surprised that Kiraxis would be concerned with his sex appeal.

“On you, they definitely are.” I gripped his clawed hand, running my thumb across his rough palm. His fingers closed around my hand, locking me into a cage.

I was perfectly content to never be set free.

“I owe you, my Elle,” he breathed, his eyes slitting open to look at me, but I shook my head.

“You owe me absolutely nothing for that, and I’d do it again,” I told him firmly.

Toth opened another bottle, and it didn’t register with me that it was alcohol until he’d poured the whole thing into Kiraxis’s mouth.

The Mlul’dra drank it all down and sighed. “Better. Soothes the ache.”

God. He’d been so damaged that even my healing hadn’t taken away the pain. I gripped his hand tighter, thanking the stars of the Void that Toth had found me in time.

It could’ve been the difference of one minute that would’ve changed his fate.

“Okay,” I said, keeping my voice steady. “I’m done playing games over this.”

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