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And still she couldn’t sleep

Ice weighed heavily on her o--and nothing had happened yet Certainly saving Ice was her heart’s desire Granted, Sydney said that the fulfillment of her ould take time … but she sensed it was time Ice didn’t have

Sabelle bit her lip to hold in her cry Yes, an entire night without sleep after a day fraught with danger was not helping her keep her co Ice had the power to destroy her How could she possibly do without him when she had just realized how very dear he was to her?

Punching her li massive and hard No, soasp, she sat up and whirled around, pressing a hand to her chest And she stared through the dark, hardly able to see eAnd she s as she searched the shadows, Sabelle quickly flicked her wrist Soft golden lights flooded the rooaze returned to the man beside her

Ice!

CHAPTER ELEVEN

"YOU’RE HERE! YOU’RE SAFE!" Sabelle flung herself at Ice, and he groaned

At the pained sound, Sabelle pulled back and studied hiave way to horror Both his eyes were swollen shut, his cheekbones and jaw bruised blue-black He lay shirtless on his sto Someone had whipped hi blood and swelling angrily Fresh blood wreathed his head, as dried rivulets looked frozen on his face

Sabelle had no doubt that, had Ice remained with Mathias even another few hours, he would have died

She backed away and took his hand "Can you hearbreath His chest rattled with the effort "Princess"

Tears stung her eyes "You’re safe now I’ll care for you"

Vaulting off the bed, she ran to the en suite bathroorabbed washcloths and towels She wet one, then carried the lot back to the bed The lihtly slack mouth told her he had fallen asleep Likely better for what she had to do

Sing hard, fearing she would hurt him, she first mopped the blood from his head, face, and neck He barely ash at his nape She rinsed the washcloth in the sink, then returned to tend the shreds of his back

Gently, she patted the wet cloth over his destroyed flesh God, the pain he must have endured To protect her How cruel Mathias must have been, and yet she knew Ice would never tell Mathias who had the diary or where to find her

How had she ever thought this ht hi but contempt and disdain, and yet Ice had opened his heart and used his body to protect her

He humbled her

Once she’d cleaned Ice as best she could, she removed his pants They were filthy and torn--and she saw fresh lashes under the ragged garh, and Sabelle tended hiainst him and somehow heal him, make his pain end

Instead, she withdrew her wand froickind’s best healer, but she’d healed Braht take a bit longer and a bitin her soul that he would be well

With a wave of her wand, she focused on stopping the blood,the wounds She would provide vitality and energy as soon as he awoke

After discarding the soiled towels, she rested beside hirabbed his hand and closed her eyes, thanking God that he was here beside her and would live Had it been a ic? She didn’t know, and at the moment, she didn’t care

He ith her

"Where a MacTavish’s estate We’ve stopped here temporarily"

"The others?"

When he’d come so near death, he worried about the other warriors and their ain "Fine Everyone is unscathed"

"You escaped MacKinnett’s" He sirl"

She would have never done it without hiain"

He pried open swollen lids that were already recovering, thanks to her touch and her ic "I would do it a thousand times over to keep you safe"

Sabelle’s heart bumped and rattled in her chest Ice had already proven his worth, yet he kept ensnaring her heart with his protection and caring Binding to hie

But would following that impulse lose her the only family she’d ever known? That question was for another moment

She pressed a soft kiss to his forehead "I aze of his and caressed her face "Are you well?"

"Better now that you’re here" She sain "How did you escape?"

"I don’t recall OneMathias’s footsteps walk away, certain I was about to pass into my nextlife The next, I opened asped Had the wizard actually helped? "And?"

Ice frowned, clearly trying to piece it together "He carimace, Sabelle felt certain that, even if Shock had come to help Ice, after that stunt, Shock would have been only too happy to show Ice to his dooh, he didn’t hit uy, and I’d used it all up fighting off Mathias’s mental invasion"

"He was determined to knohere the diary was and which female carried it?" Sabelle asked, but she already knew the answer