Page 271 of Halfblood Deceived

Diana petted Aella’s head soothingly, looking conflicted.

With an unpleasant jolt, Aella remembered she’d gone behind Zeydan’s back and Kamilla’s. “How angry is he?”

“On a scale of one to ten about a thirty,” Mari supplied, ignoring Diana’s warning head shake.

Aella sighed. She felt guilty about worrying him, but she needed to do it.

And then something else permeated her tired brain.

“Jessa!” she exclaimed. “Is she alright? Please tell me I didn’t interrupt her procedure by getting stabbed.”

Mari and Diana shared a weird look again.

The door of the room opened, and in came Kamilla. She wore blue scrubs, just like Mari. Her face was clean of makeup, and she had dark circles around her eyes, but she still managed to look every inch the princess. “I thought I heard your voice,” she said to Aella with a smile.

Mari stepped back, and Kamilla approached Aella’s bedside, leaning to kiss her forehead. “You scared the shit out of us, honey.”

“Sorry,” Aella muttered. “But I had to.”

Kamilla pursed her lips in a disagreeing gesture but said nothing.

Mari all but dropped into a chair in a position that could hardly qualify as sitting. “To answer your previous question, we don’t know what will happen to Jessa yet.” She yawned and mussed up her already wild yellow-green hair into a chaotic state. “I removed most of the scarred tissue in her spinal cord and rebuilt the bones of her spine using my healing magic. Thank Morrigan, Jessa’s system accepted Kam’s blood. So we gave her a transfusion that closed the rather epic incision and healed her without scarring. But we’re keeping her in an induced coma for now, so we don’t know how much mobility she’ll regain. The trauma she suffered was too severe. It’s a miracle she’s alive at all.”

Diana released Aella’s hand and sat on the chair by the bed, placing her face in her hands. “I hurt her. I hurt the others.” She sobbed. “I should be behind bars.”

Aella’s eyes filled with tears. Her chest squeezed.

“No.” Kamilla went to Diana’s side and crouched, cupping Diana’s face in her hands. “Look at me. Come on, look at me.” Diana sniffed and sent a bleary-eyed look at Kamilla. “You didn’t hurt Jessa, Reese, Rod, or Vaz. Brittany did,” the vampire princess said firmly. “She used you to hurt them, and she will fucking pay for what she did. You are not guilty of anything. You’re just as much of a victim as the others, Diana.”

Diana’s chin and lip trembled, tears spilling non-stop down her face. “Then I should be in a hospital bed, too. She should have hurt me, not them.”

Kamilla opened her mouth to argue, but seemed to think better of it and simply wrapped Diana in her arms. Diana buried her face in Kam’s shoulder and cried for long minutes.

Kamilla let Diana go when her breathing mostly stabilized and handed her a box of tissues.

Aella didn’t know what to say, but she wanted to say something. The silence was oppressive and uncomfortable.

“How did you get rid of the effects of the poison?” Aella asked Diana, immediately wanting to slap herself.

Diana sniffed and cleared her throat. “Kerian gave me his blood. The venom Brittany used was killing me. I’d be dead without Kerian.”

Aella made a mental note to thank him the next time she saw him. Probably give him a present. She idly wondered if he liked flowers.

“What will happen to Carina?” Aella asked. “Is she alright?”

Kam growled low, jaw clenching. “She’s fine. She’s being investigated, and she is awaiting trial. Just because she came to her senses in the end it doesn’t erase that she’s Brittany’s accomplice.” She sighed and rubbed her forehead. “I can’t tell you how guilty I feel for having them right under my fucking nose and not noticing what they were up to.”

“You’re too compassionate for your own good, Kam,” Mari said. “And unfortunately, some people take advantage of others’ empathy to pull shit like this. They had suffered at the hands of the gargoyles, and you knew it, so you didn’t think much of their dislike toward Aella and Diana. And I’m not saying it’s your fault. Or that you should change at all. But you could use some help from someone cold and impartial when you need to dig into someone’s affairs. I recommend Andreas.”

Kamilla huffed, lips flickering. “I will take that advice.”

“I have the feeling Andreas will gladly accept becoming your private investigator,” Aella commented. She remembered how well Aylana and Andreas complemented each other’s detective skills despite their bickering. “He’d be perfect for the job. He’s a bit wicked, but he’s smart.”

The door opened suddenly, making them all turn to see Zeydan entering the room.

“If he were so smart,” Zeydan spoke, voice icy and jade eyes blazing with rage, “he would have known better than to help you risk your life in such a reckless way.”

Aella blinked at him, taking in his rolled-up sleeves and the way his full black attire of rumpled dress shirt, trousers, and boots made him look too pale.

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