Page 43 of Swords and Curses

"Deryn's blood," he stated.

Rosa didn't know whether to bow or not, so she smiled awkwardly. "I'm Rosa. It's nice to meet one of Eli's brothers."

Something in Zalan's face shifted fractionally, and he gave her a nod before searching behind her.

"Balthasar." The Unseelie prince hugged him as best he could in full armor.

"It has been too long, Uncle. Thank you for coming to save the day," Balthasar said.

"Tell me, brother, were my eyes deceiving me, or I did I see your firstborn son? Or was it simply his ghost coming to defend Gwaed Lyn?" Zalan asked.

"Can't it be both?" Eldon replied from the back of the crowd.

Nimue came behind him, bleeding heavily from an arrow in her shoulder. Zalan's face broke into a smile of genuine delight as he looked him up and down.

"My dear boy," he said, holding him at arm's length. "There is much we need to discuss your adventures. I've missed you arguing with me."

"My fire is your fire, Uncle. You're welcome at it anytime you wish."

"Answer me one question, little hawk. Why are you protecting this creature?" His blade was under Nimue's chin in a movement so fast that Rosa's supernatural eyes couldn't follow it.

"She's one of us, Trahaearn." Eldon's golden eyes flashed. At the sound of his Unseelie name, Zalan's eyes went from Nimue to his nephew.

"For her sake, I hope so," he said, lowering his sword. "You'd best get that arrow out of her before the poison spreads."

Rosa loosed a tight breath. She didn't get along with Nimue, but she didn't want Zalan to kill her just for being half Seelie.

"Are you hurt anywhere, my love?" Balthasar's hand was warm on the small of her back. With the question, Rosa was made aware of the hundred aches and stings that covered her from head to toe. Her sword arm was so heavy, she could barely hold it.

"Take Rosa back upstairs," Eli suggested. "She's never wielded the sword for so long before, and it takes its toll." Eli cupped her face affectionately despite the blood that covered her. "It all comes with a price, my dear."

In a daze, Rosa let Balthasar take her back upstairs where he helped to wash away the gore from her and held her tightly when she finally began to shake.

"Sit,"Eldon pointed at the chair by the fireplace. He switched the lights on in the cottage and put water on to boil.

This is a stupid idea. You should've asked Eli to do it, he cursed inwardly as he dropped various herbs and barks into a bowl.

As if knowing mishaps were inevitable with the Vanes, the Wylt cottage had a large and well stocked first-aid kit. He pulled out bandages and ignored the medicines and vials of penicillin that would be useless against Seelie poisons. He filled the bowl with steaming water and put it on a tray.Calm your shit, Blaise. He took a deep breath and went back into the lounge room.

Nimue had tossed a blanket over the chair to protect it from the blood that stained her clothes and hair. A sheen of sweat covered her skin, the only sign of the poison that was eating its way through her.

"Here." Eldon handed her towel to cover her other shoulder and chest. "We are going to have to undo…" he gestured to her top. She leaned forward so he could untie the navy strings at the nape of her neck.

"Can you still feel your tongue?" he asked, cleaning her wound with the soaked flannel.

"Yes," she replied through gritted teeth. "Why?"

"I thought I'd better check. You haven't been this quiet since you came back."

"You've made it clear that you don't want to listen to anything I have to say," she replied, her blue eyes lowered to the dead coals in the fireplace. Eldon snapped his fingers, and it flamed to life in a wave of heat and light.

"Show-off." Nimue managed a ghost of a smile.

"I'm too busy to build a fire," Eldon countered.

The shaft of the arrow hadn't gone all the way through. He hoped it didn't have barbed ends. Guilt flickered through him. It should've been him with an arrow stuck in him. If Nimue hadn't acted, he could've been dead.If the Almighty would just let me die, for once.

"Drink this." He passed her a small vial. She knocked it back without question. "You're very trusting. What if it was poison?"

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