Page 18 of The Elven Spymaster's Thief

Despite his argument, I didn’t like how pale he was. Grabbing the tablecloth from a nearby table, I folded it into a thick pad and offered it to Casimir.

“What is that for?” he demanded, glaring at the cloth.

“Applying pressure.” I grimaced at his blank stare. “To encourage the wound to close up and scab. At the very least, it will stop him from bleeding so quickly. I don’t know how much blood elves need, but bleeding too much will kill a human.”

“Elves too,” Whispier muttered. “Let her.”

“Fine. Do what you will. I am going to try and find a healer.” He skewered me with a dark glare. “If he dies before I return, rest assured I am going to hunt you down for an accounting of why.”

“Understood.” I nodded. “Don’t let him die, or you will kill me.”

Casimir snorted and left in a slight whoosh that stirred the scattered papers on the floor.

“He won’t kill you.” Whispier leaned over the arm of the chair, offering me a clear view of his wound.

“You didn’t see his face.” I crossed to him and pressed the cloth pad against the worst bleeding gouge.

Whispier sucked air sharply through his teeth. The muscles of his back tensed beneath my hand.

“I am sorry.” As aggravating as he was, I didn’t wish him harm. “Your brother isn’t happy that you healed me first.”

“Not his decision.” He groaned. “Never was.”

“That won’t stop him from killing me if you die.”

Whispier’s soft chuckle filled the ruined library. “I won’t die.”

“Is that bravado or truth-speaking? I am not very familiar with elven anatomy, but you have lost a lot of blood.” Green speckles and smears were mixed with more typical rust-colored stains on the floor. “Wait, where was I injured?” Feeling my face and head with my free hand, I found it all whole.

“She attempted to rip out your throat, except she missed.”

I ran my hand down my throat. There was some tenderness around my left collarbone, but only smooth skin met my fingertips.

“The phantom pain should clear up by nightfall.” His voice grew softer. “I think I found all of your injuries, but if I missed one, I can?.” He slumped forward.

Abandoning the cloth, I moved just fast enough to stop him from smashing his face as he sprawled out of his chair and to the floor. His continued ominous silence left me scrambling to check for a pulse. I did know elves had hearts and, if they lived, pulses. Thankfully a strong, steady beat met my questing fingers when I finally found his wrist. Retrieving the pad of stained cloth, I reapplied pressure to the back of his shoulder and prayed that he wouldn’t die before Casimir returned.

∞∞∞

Chapter Five

Illeron

“You risked too much.” Casimir stood over my bed, glaring at me in the darkness of my room. Standing in the shadows cast by the moonlight, my brother was nearly invisible in the dimness. Only the angry glitter of his silvery-green eyes glinted out of the velvet blackness.

I groaned as I rolled on my side away from his judging gaze. I wasn’t in the mood for this discussion. My back and shoulders burned where the healer had placed a slow-working healing spell on the gashes. My skin would be whole by midnight and the scars gone before morning, but that thought did little to soothe my discomfort.

“You should’ve dealt with your own injuries and called the healer for her.” He flitted through the shadows, materializing across from me again. Arms folded over his chest. “She wasn’t worth the risk of dying.”

“I wasn’t dying.” I glared up at him. “You know we are harder to kill than that.” My back spasmed as muscles grew together. I bit back an oath as I rolled onto my stomach and buried my face in my pillow.

“It wasn’t as though she was dying,” Casimir muttered.

I turned my head so my voice wouldn’t be muffled. He had to hear this. “She was. If I hadn’t acted, she would’ve bled out on the floor within minutes. That harpy knew what to target. She ripped Avril’s neck open from ear to collarbone.” I grimaced as another muscle clenched in my back. Never had my years of studying human anatomy proven so important as in those first few moments after I reached her. The memory of her torn flesh brought a fresh wave of horror. Clinical objectiveness had melted away at the sight of her slender body sprawled on the cold floor with her lifeblood pulsing from her with frightening speed. “If I didn’t know better, I would think she was being targeted.”

“Why?” Casimir snorted softly. “She is a lowly thief and a bad one at that. I spotted her long before she reached your study. Only an idiot would walk through an unspelled door without realizing it was a trap.” He shifted his weight soundlessly. “Besides, you didn’t have to heal her to the extent you did. You could’ve just stabilized her, and that would’ve satisfied the binding.”

“Regardless of what our binding required, humans are fragile. I couldn’t risk her sickening or dying.”

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