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“If it has any hope of working at all, it’s bound to do so,” Hannon said “The everlass elixir you make only takes hours to work on Dad”

“I know, I know” I heaved a sigh and brushed Nyfain’s hair back frouess noait and see what our lives will become”

15

Two hours later, I sat on Sable’s bed covered in bandages, looking at Nyfain as he squirmed and thrashed His fists clenched and unclenched His head turned froroaned, his forehead and back slicked with sweat

I’d told my family the whole story, from the second I left the house to the second I returned, oleaned that Nyfain was iht he was a noble who had survived and had the fate of the kingdoullible as I had been And while they knew about the castle of nightone into detail about the nature of those nighteneral picture I was sure Hannon connected the dots, given his knowledge of the dee

When I was finished, Sable asked, “But why is he covered in pain?”

The question took me aback “Because he thinks he killed his dom”

“No” She screwed up her face “That thing with his mother is just silly Wo people say to hide the neglect and mistreatht of herself as a rosebush Well, rosebushes don’t give in to anybody You can cut the hell out of therow a new shoot and co stifled and cut off fros they love, like water and sunshine I bet it’s the dad’s fault The dad killed her to bring the son back and then trap hi”

“You’ve been reading too many mysteries,” Hannon murmured

“Better than Dash’s stupid picture novels,” she said, and Dash threw a pillow at her “Anyway, no, I wasn’t talking about what his father did to him That’s obvious I meant, why does he have all the scrapes and stuff all over his body? Is that arriors always look like?”

More ti as slowly as cold honey, Sable sleeping on the couch and just hi fro at those thick indents running down his back At the zigzags slicing through his flesh

“Why do you really patrol the Forbidden Wood?” I said softly, leaning over to trace one of those wide scars He shivered and

I got ontoto the bottoain He breathed deeply and turned his faceIt seemed to soothe him for some reason

“It’s because you’re protecting all of us, isn’t it? That’s your duty” I surveyed the black lines fro fro If those lines weren’t nearly gone in another hour and a half, I’d give him a tiny bit more of the elixir

I thought back over the years Back then, we’d had visitors more violent than the incubi Those creatures had terrorized the town and killed anyone they could I remembered the fear and panic My parents had one, just in case they busted into the house We’d been religious about locking the doors and closing the shutters

Over tih I couldn’t remember the last time it had happened

Now I realized it was because of Nyfain He’d clearly gone through a steep learning curve, and now he patrolled the wood every night, killing the violent creatures before they could reach the villages

“The deht?” I asked, sh forehead “He es but his creations could At the start, at least The game is that you need to find and kill thees and prey on the people Your people”

What a sli a snake was a disservice to snakes

“I wish I could help you” I traced his strong jaw and then down the scar along the edge of his full, shapely lips “I wish I could shift and help you I know my animal would be all for it”