Page 142 of Sidhe
of his hand
Chapter 50
Everythingached.Itwasa sensation Nathan was used to. Normally, he wouldn’t mind—the harsh awakening, the dull ache of pain from wounds sustained—because ‘waking’ and ‘pain’ also meant ‘alive’.
What bothered him, though, was that someone was shining a light directly at his scrunched closed eyes and he was not in the mood to be blind as well as sore.
“What’s the…deal?” Nathan huffed out, arm lifting instinctively, heavily, to shield his vision further. “Who’s got the damn flashlight?”
There was a laugh, one distinctly of relief, and coming from a voice Nathan knew well. “No one’s got a flashlight, Nate,” Jim said through his chuckling, “it’s thesun, dude.”
Nathan’s arm immediately dropped, his eyes squinting open against the unfamiliar brightness filling the bar of the Gatehouse through the windows and doorway. Had the sun always beenthis bright, or had Nathan just grown too used to Malak’s world of darkness?
Squinting further and waiting for his eyes to adjust, Nathan began to make out the form of his brother kneeling beside him, Alex on his other side, and Walter standing in front of him, hovering all protective. Nathan couldn’t have been happier to see them. The slowly encroaching sounds of chatter and movement beyond the trio told Nathan that there were others inside the Gatehouse—manyothers.
“We did it.” Nathan grinned all tired and lopsided, so damn exhausted that he almost wished he could fall over and curl up on the floor for a few more winks. But he was too excited, not only in remembering that Malak was gone, but in knowing that his soldiers had been winning when he passed out, and clearly hadn’t disappointed him while he slept.
“Youdid it, Nathan,” Walter said, ever magnanimous and proud. “The dark fae fell apart without Malak’s confident resolve. You saved us.”
“Guess you and Malak had one hell of a conversation,” Alex said, hand squeezing Nathan’s shoulder, the other wrapping around his waist to begin helping him up, Jim having already moved to do the same.
“Wait!” Nathan gasped, waiting for the cringe of pain that being hoisted up would inevitably cause, since several of his ribs were broken after Malak’s brutal assault.
Jim and Alex froze at Nathan’s cry, worried looks springing to both their faces, but even though Nathan was prepared for that sting of pain, it never came. He took a deep breath.
“My ribs were…I thought…” He was very confused because as sore as he was generally, it wasn’t as sore as he should be, and his ribs weren’t giving him trouble at all.
“Where does it hurt?” Jim asked.
“Not in nearly enough places…” Nathan mumbled. “I was beat to hell. Malak left me in pretty bad shape. I almost thought…” He trailed again, and suddenly looked sharply at Jim. “Was I…didyou…?”
Jim’s brow furrowed a moment before realization struck. “No, Nate, I didn’t use my ability on you. You were unconscious but…well, you seemed fine when we found you. You don’tlookall beat to hell,” he added amusedly. “No more so than usual.”
“But then…how…” Nathan trailed one last time as he realized, seeing Walter’s puzzled look as well, that there was only one person who could have healed him, who would have had the free will and power to do it. And since he figured he owed the bastard for offering a parting gift, he decided he’d keep Malak’s secret to himself. “Guess it looks better than it felt at the time. I must just be tired.”
No evidence remained of his beating, as if it had never happened. There was still the faint ache in his jaw from when Malak punched him, regardless of the lack of bruising. And his ribs, they weresore, just not broken into bits.
“What happened to your horsemen weapons?” Nathan asked.
Alex frowned in answer for all of them. “They vanished. That’s how we knew you’d defeated Malak. They vanished when he did, and all of the remaining dark fae either fled or fell. A shame too; I really liked those guns.”
Nathan chuckled. “Everything else normal then?”
A sudden BOOM echoed through the bar to answer Nathan. It seemed a small, harmless tousle had been about to break out, maybe nothing more than a friendly argument, but the Gatehouse wards were back in full swing if the two seals rubbing their rear ends on either side of the bar were any indication. They looked to each other and then to Alex apologetically.
“I don’t get it though. What happened with Malak?” Alex asked, once Nathan was steady on his own two feet.
“I beat him,” Nathan said simply. “Guess he couldn’t stand up to my superior intellect.”
A brief twinge of pain, like an aftershock, made Nathan cough, choking on the laugh that had formed on his tongue. He thought better of saying anything else along those lines. Best not to tempt karma—or Malak’s generosity.
Jim laughed for him, as if the idea of Nathan beating Malak with wits was plain ridiculous, until Nathan really looked into his brother’s eyes and saw that Jim wasn’t laughing out of disbelief, but out of reverent, brother-worshiping awe. It was a look Nathan never tired of, no matter how old they got, no matter how much they went through, because it was something special, the knowledge that at least insomeone’seyes Nathan Grier would always be a hero. In Jim’s and in…
In…
Sasha’s.
Nathan gripped Jim’s shirt, clutching more desperately than before and hating himself for only just now noticing. “Where’s Sasha? Is he okay? What happened out there after Malak took me? He’sokay, right?”
