Page 12 of What Lies Within Blood & Heirs

Muddy-gray orbs fluttered, partially reflecting the night sky as they bobbed open. “Fuck,” Garrik groaned when she pressed harder, words struggling to form around his bloodless lips. “That hurts.”

A relieved sigh betrayed her. He was awake, speaking normally. But she could send sparks into his blood for the absolute stupidity he had displayed.

Instead, she threw a harsh bite into her words, masking her concern. Masking the relief she refused to show him. Not now anyway. “That’s what you get for trying to fight a dragon by yourself. Fool.” With a quick scrape, Alora pulled the cloth away to check the bleeding and quickly pressed it back.

“If I always receive thislovelybedside manner…” He coughed, pebbling blood across his colorless lips. “I will be sure to attract danger more often.“ Garrik winced and clutched his abdomen.

“You’ve gone mad.” Alora shook her head, mouth in a thin line.

Garrik’s strained grin trembled. “Dark, darling. Not mad. And you are the star that saved my life.”

“I wouldn’t have had to if you wouldn’t have gone off alone.”

He attempted to smirk but failed. “Comes with the High Prince title.”

“Bullshit,” she snapped. Her hands trembled, wrapping the cloth around his head.

The ice of Garrik’s hand clasped around her palm, and her worried eyes flickered to his.

“What were you thinking?” She shook her head.

Garrik coughed, sputtering more blood. “I wasn’t,” he admitted. “It would seem I pissed off a dragon in doing so.”

Alora bit back the hostility growing behind her teeth and ground out, “Fighting a damndragon.”She scoffed to hide the shake in her voice. “Don’t do that again or I swear I’ll kill you myself.”

“An honorable way to die.” This time, he half-smirked, and she tightened the cloth to make him wince and chuckle,forcing his hand to grip his abdomen and painfully regret the movement.

Alora’s eyes flashed with worry; his did, too. But she stiffened. “Don’t tempt me, mighty prince.”

“Yes, princess,” Garrik breathed. That irritating smirk swiftly fell as he clenched his eyes.

Alora growled and wiped blood-covered hair from his face. “I’m not a princess.”

“Your Majesty?”

“Stop.”Shuffling her attention, her finger traced the five long gashes in his leathers. They looked bad in the darkened night, even with the glow of flowers under the moonlight, but she couldn’t be certain.

Garrik’s hand hadn’t moved from applying pressure, and blood seeped around his fingers, over the back of his hand. If he let go …

She needed to get him back to camp. High Fae can sustain a significant amount of blood loss before succumbing to their wounds, but she was not entirely sure how much. She had never been in such a position to find out.

“Can you dawn us home?” she asked, scanning the mountains.

Garrik’s eyes opened, his expression unreadable.

“Can you dawn us to camp?”

His lips quivered as he focused his eyes and exhaled a painful breath. Garrik twisted his hand that lay unmoving in the grass, fingers twitching as his face scrunched taut.

Smokeshadows trickled from his skin, much less than she thought would, until they misted away and vanished in the grass.

He let out an excruciating sigh and forced a swallow, then grimacing, said, “No.”

Starsdamnit.Alora peeled back a layer of leather, exposing one of the gashes?—

“Fuck!” Garrik groaned in agony; his face blanched whiter. “Don’t do that.”

She returned the leather to his abdomen and pressed. “Sorry.” Hands hovering, Alora studied each wound until her voice cracked. “I have to close this somehow. I don’t … I … I don’t know what to do.“

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