Page 269 of A Dance of Water

Her white hair was damp, freshly cleaned of blood as she lay, face down, on his bed. A thin sheet was pulled over the curve of her soft hips and thighs as Tharen knelt over her, changing her wet bandages.

The feathers on her wings were damp, water dripping and soaking his sheets. Waves of soft pain thrummed down their bond as Tharen unraveled the bandages.

Smoke curled as Vale watched with jealousy. The mage was practically straddling her hips as he worked, his hands intimately caressing the dips of her waist.

Vale pinched the bridge of his nose.

She’s safe, she’s safe,he chanted, warning both himself and his dragon.

His dragon was calm, watching and waiting for the moment he might be needed, with whispers of smug pride rumbling through his scaled chest, understanding that what Luella needed most right now was Vale. Stability.

In this state, she wouldn’t do well being carried off to his den.

Color had returned to her cheeks, a soft rosy glow after her warm bath. But based on the way the demon kept smiling to himself, andshe kept turning her head on the pillow to stare at him where he sat on the floor at the foot of the bed, Vale assumed the flush was from more than just her body healing and adapting to her wings.

"Be still," Tharen warned, palm flattening against her lower back as he finished wrapping fresh bandages around her waist. She gasped as he tightened it, fingers curling in the sheets.

Thunder cracked overhead, making Vale’s nostrils flare with tension.

Bastian parted the curtains. "It’s getting worse."

"I know," Vale gritted out. "Luella, you have to stop it. We cannot afford another storm. Rein it in." With each word, he strode nearer to her, a shadow cast over her as he loomed by the bed.

Tharen looked up at him. "You’re blocking the candlelight. Move."

Vale didnotmove. The bed dipped as he sat by her side, fingers spanning out on the sheets, so close to touching her, but not quite.

Luella’s cheek was endearingly pressed into the pillow. "I do not have any control over it… I-I cannot stop it." Her lashes brushed her brow as she blinked up at him.

Vale stared at his fingers, near the edges of the sheet that was folded over her lower half. Just a little closer… "You have more control than you think you do."

Bastian moved away from the curtains, falling heavily into a chair by the bedside, next to Graves. The vampire slumped, while Graves sat perched on the edge of the seat, poised to jump up at any moment.

"More control than you did before," Tharen commented.

"What do you mean?" she asked softly.

"The wings were hidden with a glamor, just like the one that hid your true appearance before. It unlocked something else inside you." As Tharen spoke, he dipped his fingers into a tin, gently wiping a clear salve over the back of her neck, fingers digging into her skin. "You feelmore—more calm, more stable."

Luella let out a sleepy moan, her wings fluttering. "Another g-glamor?"

Tharen hummed.

"There will be no hiding your wings anymore," said Vale. Therecouldn’t be. She was weak. Another glamor—if Tharen could even replicate it—could kill her.

"If the only way out of this is through it, then we have to come to a decision," Bastian interjected.

A low growl filled the room. Azgorath—who had previously been resting his chin in his hand, watching her—seethed, "You still want her to go to the ball? She can’t walk. She is inpain." He stretched his arm out, gripping Luella’s ankle with a possessive hold.

"I know that, demon," Vale hissed with equal vitriol.

Tharen still had not moved from where he sat on the back of her thighs, brushing her drying white hair away from her neck as his thumbs worked the salve into her skin. "She made it back from the bathing chambers just fine."

"I was holding onto her," Azgorath growled.

"So," Graves said lowly, "we won’t let her go."

Vale turned to look at him, eyes narrowing as the male fiddled with the purple stone of his amulet.

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