mixing them on her skin with his hand. “Fekats resti sana co gev adi.”
Cassie sucked in a deep, shuddering breath, then released it in clear relief.
Tori took the mixture of elements and rubbed them from her sternum to her throat, and she eased even further as the cooling effect spread through her system. He eyed her carefully, monitoring her as best he could, but she seemed to be past the worst of it now. His spellwork was reversing the worst of the damage, although she’d likely sleep for the next few hours recovering from this. God, just the idea of how painful that had been sent a sympathetic shudder through his body.
The hotel employee came back, her hands full of a thick comforter and two pillows. Sasha quickly helped her with both, taking the pillows and sliding them gently under Cassie’s head. Baldewin helped settle the blanket over her, and Tori drew it up to her chin. “Thank you, ma’am. Sasha, I think I have her over the worst of it. Here, take the water bottle, get more down her if you can. She’s severely dehydrated right now.”
Sasha nodded, taking the bottle and tipping it carefully into Cassie’s mouth.
The front lobby doors opened, and four cops spilled inside, their hands already on their weapons. When they didn’t see a firefight in progress, they stopped and milled around in confusion.
“Of course someone called the police,” Baldewin sighed. “Alright. I’ll deal with them.”
Better him than Tori. Tori would tell them to go away.
But then, his nerves were still strung out after diving into a magical fight while being practically unarmed and then dealing with a patient when he only theoretically knew what to do. Yeah. Baldewin was the better choice. “Baldewin? Pretty obvious it was a magical fight going on here. Just FYI.”
Baldewin groaned, shoulders slumping. “Yeah. Thanks for warning me.” He pushed to his feet and caught Warin’s eye, motioning to Tori.
Warin nodded and came to kneel on one knee, offering the phone to Tori. As Baldewin left to go handle the police, Tori accepted the phone a little gingerly. Did he really want to talk to whoever was on the other side?
“Tori.” Cameron’s voice came through clearly, and he sounded more than a little panicked. “How is my sister?”
Shit! Of course it was the consort-brother. “Look, I won’t lie. They drained her pretty bad, and if it wasn’t for her magical connection with Sasha, she’d probably be half-dead right now. But I’ve applied a reviving potion directly to her skin, and I think she’s stabilizing. She’s no longer sweating, her skin is warming up”—he put two fingers to her throat and frowned—“but her pulse is still elevated. We should be able to get her moving soon, but it will take a few days to completely heal from this. But I think she’ll pull through it.”
“You know how to treat this?”
“I mean, I’ve read books on how to do it. We’re all taught it, just in case we accidentally have a spell backlash, as it’s basically the same thing. It hits you right in the magical core and overloads you. It feels much like an electrical burn. First time I’ve had to use the knowledge on someone, though. So, if you want to send someone out here to back me up, I won’t be offended.”
“We might yet. I will be calling on the hour to get updates.”
“Absolutely. We’ll hop on a train, get there as quickly as we can, okay? Right now, though, I need to make sure she’s stabilized enough to travel.”
Relief was clear in Cameron’s voice. “Thank you. Warin says they couldn’t catch who did this to her.”
“I’m so, so sorry about this. We just came down to the lobby for coffee. Neither of us were thinking straight. We weren’t awake enough for it. Coffee was the only thing on our brains.”
“Don’t apologize. The Jaeggi specialize in sneak attacks. Damn their hides. And I’m told you were putting up a hell of a fight to get them off her before Sasha could reach you.”
“I was trying. Didn’t have much to work with.” Tori was never stepping out of his room without his black bag ever again. Ever. Again.
“Keep an eye on Sasha, too, okay? My sister-in-law is tough as nails, but when a dragon’s mate goes down, they don’t handle it well.”
“You got it.” Tori eyed the dragon in question. Sasha was hovering, clutching one of Cassie’s hands to her own chest, worried blue eyes fixated on her mate’s