Page 79 of Owned

The Bloodstone Grimoire was on her vanity.

The cursed book was closed.

Innocent.

“She cut the shit out of herself,” Valen growled. “This is your fault—”

“My fault?” I shot back. “Don’t be stupid—”

“You’re the one who was teaching her—you can’t trust that book!”

“Both of you shut up,” Bastian snapped. “Let’s patch her up and get out of here. Lucian will be looking for us. I don’t like this any more than either of you do.”

I didn’t answer, my eyes on her. She lay curled against the pillow, breath shallow and ragged. The sight of her like this—I wasn’t ready for the emotion that accompanied it.

What if Valen was right? What if thiswasmy fault?

“Avril,” I murmured. Her eyelids fluttered, but she didn’t respond.

Part of me wanted to shake her, force her to tell me what the hell she thought she was doing with that cursed thing. But another part wanted to pull her close until I could feel her pulse steady against mine.

Valen knelt beside the bed and his expression was dark with something that might have been guilt… or anger. Maybe both. “Avril,” he said, more insistently.

She stirred, and a pained little whimper escaped her lips.

“She’s going to heal,” Bastian said. “You don’t have to be such a pussy about it.” His callous words earned him a sharp glare from Valen, but I could see concern in my younger brother’s pale eyes, too.

Valen reached for Avril’s hand and brushed his fingers over her palm where the wounds were already knitting themselves back together. “You’re an idiot,” he murmured.

The pale blue smoke of his magic twisted between his fingers and wrapped itself around Avril’s slender arm, helping her magic to repair her wounds.

She would be weak—probably for days.

“Sleep now,” Valen murmured.

Avril’s eyelashes fluttered against her ghostly cheeks, and then she was still.

I felt a strange tug inside my chest. An unfamiliar ache. I convinced myself it was only frustration.

Bastian was already moving toward the door. “Let’s go,” he said.

Valen rose reluctantly from Avril’s side and his magic dissipated into the air like soft blue ash. I let them go ahead, and my eyes lingered on the figure curled beneath the coverlet.

This wasn’t over.

Not by a long shot.

The house was quiet except for the muted voices of my brothers as they drifted up from the stairwell.

As I caught up with them, Valen’s voice seemed sharp in the silence.

“What do you think Lucian’s going to do?” he asked.

“Depends on if what Bastian told him is true,” I replied as I caught up to them. “He shouldn’t have run his mouth without proof.”

Bastian smirked, but it lacked its usual arrogance. “Get off my ass. I’m the only one who brought anything to him. What the fuck have you been doing?”

He paused at the base of the stairs and turned to face me with a gleam in his eye that reminded me of Lucian at his most manipulative. “Well?”

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