Page 84 of Charmed

His Fiona. Damn did Riley love her.

“On it!” Tristan, his brother. The brave warrior. He disappeared from view.

Riley loved him, too.

A sudden, jarring weight was removed from Riley’s chest, and shock smacked him upside the face when he recognized the Minister as what had been on top of him.

Riley heaved oxygen. Or tried to. It was hard to come by. Too hard. The hell? And when had it gotten so cold? Like dead of winter, except it was summer. Had Kaida wielded her water element to freeze the atmosphere around him?

He turned his head.

The Minister was trapped in a headlock, Tristan’s arm around the bastard’s throat. His big brother said something, but Riley couldn’t hear the words through the pulsing grind in his ears. Tristan dragged their uncle toward shore.

“Now,” Kaida yelled.

Tristan let go and ran backward.

Water. A ginormous wave of it came inland. A tsunami, but… It only sought the Minister. Plucked him right off the beach, swallowed him, and carried him out to sea.

Huh. Kaida had gotten a lot better at wielding and controlling her water element. Go her.

Riley smiled at Brady, whose face was looming over him for whatever reason. “That was really cool. Your woman rocks.”

“Yeah, man.” Brady grunted, expression strained as he tightened the strap on Riley’s leg. Well, not a strap, but a piece of his shirt. “Drink that, would you please?” He jerked his chin to Riley’s other side.

Ceara held a vial with some sort of blue liquid. “Do what he says. Drink this. It’ll help.” That calm, calm voice of hers. It soothed him until he felt like he’d floated away, too.

The redhead would never hurt him, so he opened his mouth. Cool fluid hit his tongue. It tasted like cayenne and rosemary. Blech.

Heat returned to his limbs, his vision less hazy. He hadn’t realized either things had been plaguing him until the senses had returned. Excruciating pain in his leg jarred him into blaring focus.

“It’s…working.” Fiona, kneeling between his knees, pressed on the wound on his thigh.

Oh crap. The blade had sliced through his jeans. The cut was deep. Bone deep. Blood splatter covered her arms as if she’d walked through a carnage scene in a horror flick.

Which meant it had probably severed his femoral artery.

“I love you.” Just in case he didn’t make it, he had to say it again. “I love you.”

“Love…you…too.” Voice tight, expression tighter, she glanced at him. Tears shone in her eyes. So damn blue, those eyes. “Don’t you dare…say goodbye to me.”

“Wouldn’t think of it.”

She pressed harder, and white-yellowish light shone from her palms against his skin.

The wound tingled. Itched. Stung. “Ow, babe.”

“Almost…done.”

Mercy, look at her. Ferocious, determined, and probably feeling guilty as she healed him. His badass witch, heart in her eyes. How had he lived his whole life without her in it? “Marry me.”

Her gaze jerked to his once more, wide and riddled with disbelief. “I’m…trying to heal…you, Riley.”

He laughed. It ended in a gasp. “Can’t commit to me for a few minutes? Come on, Fi. First comes love, then comes marriage.”

“You…idiot.”

He was an idiot, but not because he loved her or wanted to get married. No. It was because he should’ve known all along that she loved him back. She defended him, took care of him, put herself in danger for him, opened up to him, showed her true self to him, and if all that hadn’t been enough, she’d shared her magick with him.

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