Page 38 of Halfblood Deceived

“Why are you interrupting me—Oh, goddess!” Mari exclaimed, something she rarely did. Her light brown skin paled.

She was moving two seconds later, her tiny hands measuring Aella’s pulse in her wrist and bruised neck at the same time. She then unceremoniously banished Aella’s blood and rain-soaked clothes with a snap of her fingers and a flash of verdant magic, leaving Aella in her underwear.

Both Zeydan and Mari cursed soundly.

The wound had clearly been made by a gargoyle sword. Tendrils of corrupted silver magic branched out from the brutal injury, carving terrifying marks on Aella’s pale skin.

But that wasn’t all.

Around 80% of Aella’s body was covered with bruises in different stages of healing. Her forearms and thighs also bore hand-shaped hematomas.

Fury burned in Zeydan’s chest, a low growl rumbling in his chest. Fucking bastards, how dare they? He inwardly raged. It was old news that most gargoyles treated their females like lesser beings and incubators. But seeing it with his own eyes made it more real and horrifying. Zeydan wanted—no, he needed to know who had done this to Aella so he could carve their rotten heart out of their ribcage with his bare hands.

Mari placed her palms on each side of Aella’s wound, casting a spell. She hissed in pain and shook her head, dashing toward a shelf, and taking a bulb-shaped flask full of green liquid.

“Hold her still, Zeydan,” Mari ordered. “She’s going to, unfortunately, feel this.”

Zeydan did as told, one arm across Aella’s bruised thighs and the other holding down her equally purple shoulders.

Mari poured the potion into the wound. It hissed and made silvery foam along with blood rush out from the deep gash.

Aella’s body arched from the table with considerably more strength than Zeydan expected. She screamed, even though her eyes remained shut. Zeydan shuddered and gingerly scrambled to keep her still, but feared applying too much pressure and bruising her even more. The thought of causing her more pain made his head throb.

“Fucking beasts,” Mari grumbled, face tight with fury and worried horror.

Zeydan knew how she felt. His stomach clenched painfully, bile crawling up his throat.

Mari applied more of her potion to Aella’s wound. The gargoyle thrashed some more, but less than before, and she merely groaned low this time. The amount of silvery foam that bubbled from the vicious cut was much less and fizzled out quickly. Slowly, the horrible tendrils of corrupted magic receded.

Mari put the bottle on the small table by the bed and placed her hands on Aella’s stomach again. She took a deep breath and intoned a long incantation in Feynish. Her verdant, faintly yellow aura flared, haloing her and making her look like the magical being she was.

Zeydan’s heart hammered harder. The very few patches of Aella’s skin that weren’t covered with bruises showed gray, death-like paleness. Gargoyles were incredibly hard to kill, but she was half human and she might not survive despite Mari’s help.

He was going to find whoever had done this to Aella and kill them for it. Slowly.

From the corner of his eye, Zeydan saw Gabby dash into the room, trailed by Lex, both wearing their pajamas.

“What in all the Hells is happening—Gods above.” Gabby covered her mouth with one hand.

“That’s Aella?” Lex asked.

“Yes,” Zeydan responded, easing his grip on Aella, holding her hand instead.

He could feel Mari’s warm, clean, mighty magic entering Aella’s system. The worst bruises on Aella’s stomach faded from purple to green, and her pulse grew slightly stronger.

“What the bloody Hells happened to her and how did she find us?” Lex asked.

“That’s an excellent question,” Andreas agreed as he arrived, leaning against the wall. “The man who was looking for her in the woods was a taxi driver. I swept his mind and found nothing useful.”

Zeydan flicked a glance at Andreas, but his eyes returned to Mari, still casting with her eyes closed, and Aella, whose breathing was still labored. “What did you do with him?”

“Turned him into my breakfast,” Andreas deadpanned. He huffed at Zeydan, Lex, and Gabby’s horrified looks. “Wiped his memory of your little gargoyle friend and sent him on his merry way back to his family with enough cash to buy himself a new car. What did you idiots expect?”

Zeydan’s nose wrinkled. He expected exactly that from the male who had been his friend for half a decade. And immediately felt guilty for suspecting something else, even for a second. But the truth was that grief had wreaked havoc on Andreas. Elizabeth, his wife, was slaughtered by the gargoyles. There was this darkness in Andreas, a thirst for blood that he sometimes quenched by hunting down and killing human perverts. And sometimes Zeydan feared that darkness would eclipse all the light in Andreas.

Mari’s magical aura slowly dwindled as she opened her eyes. Her healing power remained concentrated in her right hand, which she stretched and placed on Aella’s face with a feather-like touch.

“She’ll survive,” Mari announced.

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