A Queen of Ruin (Deliciously Dark Fairytales 4)

I grimaced because he was sure to fly into a spectacular rage once I made it through this.

Nyfain reached the back door of the castle and paused, kicking out. The door busted from the hinges and fell away to the side. He continued on as though that hadn’t been a bit extreme.

“He came here with one purpose,” Nyfain said, jogging again. “To kill me. He didn’t expect to nearly get killed by my mate, his former prisoner.”

This time, the pride in his tone was clear.

Spectacular rage followed by incredible sex was definitely in my future.

“It helped greatly that you pushed the dragons to fight on the ground.” His voice was a soft rumble now.

A wave of dizziness swept over me. That would be the blood loss. I needed to patch that thing up, and quick.

“The question is,” I said, a tiny bit slurred, “why didn’t you push them to do that? Their efforts from the air were mostly ineffectual.”

He didn’t answer for a moment; we were nearly to the shed.

“Because dragons aren’t used to fighting on the ground,” he finally replied. “They aren’t trained for it. I didn’t want to force them to abandon their flight.”

I pulled away somewhat so I could look into his golden eyes. What he wasn’t saying was louder than what he was.

“You have to stop that shit,” I told him firmly.

His brow furrowed.

“You have to stop feeling sorry for yourself and assuming you are bringing everyone down,” I continued. “Flight can have a great many advantages, like moving from point A to point B quickly to reach your target—”

“We’ll talk about what you did later,” he growled.

I swallowed as he reached the everlass shed but ignored his comment.

“But Dolion somehow protected his people from fire, which is the other main strength a dragon has going for it in the air. And then there were the trees and the number of enemies surrounding you and the wolves…”

He set me down gently on the workstation, looking around with wide eyes.

“It’s fine—this place is controlled chaos. I know where everything is.” I grimaced as I struggled to get down. He set me on my feet but kept his hand firmly pressed against my wound. “Yeah, good call. Keep pressure on that. I don’t think I have any bandages in here.”

“Here.” Nyfain took down bandages from a high shelf in the corner.

I braced my hands on the tabletop to keep from falling as I made my way around, knowing Arleth and Delaney had been working on healing elixirs and draughts to trade. It would get my healing started while I mixed up something stronger, and then a salve for Hannon’s patchwork. I just had to stay ahead of the damage and give my body time to heal.

“You should’ve seen yourself, Nyfain,” I mumbled as I found one of their draughts. I unscrewed the top and drank it down. It was supposed to be diluted with water, but the stronger the better.

“Ugh,” I said as I breathed out what felt like fumes. “That tastes rough. They need to fix that.”

I took some dried everlass, the kind I knew would work, dumped it into a stone bowl, and motioned Nyfain toward the pot in the corner. “Water. Heated. I need a rolling boil. Half a bucket is enough. I don’t need much, and less water means faster heating.”

“What about the bandages?” he asked.

“Bandages are a patch. This elixir is a cure. I need that water going.”

“Sure, yeah.” Nyfain dashed over to the pot and was quickly out the door, doing my bidding. His mother had trained him well.

I chose the herbs I needed, shaking now, this remedy one I’d used for years. It was fast, efficient, and didn’t require much work. Perfect for when I came home half-dead, something I’d done a few times before.

“You were amazing,” I said as he jogged back in, set the pot in place, and got working on the fire. The coals were still hot, never really cooling down with us always in and out, so it would be a quick job to get it going. “You worked—”

Dizziness overcame me and my knees gave out, pitching me against the table and down. I clutched on lest I fell and couldn’t get back up—force of habit. I sucked in breath, willing that first draught to start working quickly, willing myself to hang on until this next one was done.

“Goddess help me, Finley—” Nyfain was there in an instant, hoisting me back up.

“It’s fine. This is nothing. Work on that fire!” I said, sucking in air. Just needed a little oxygen and I’d be ready to go.

“What have we got?” Hannon jogged in, assessing me quickly. I was thankful he didn’t grimace, because that would’ve set Nyfain off, but I could tell he wanted to. This was definitely an occasion for his grimace.