Involuntarily, Nic looked over to the still form of Gabriel. “If he wakes up.”

“Oh, he will.” Jadren grinned at her, teeth white as he bared them. “That silver bastard is too stubborn and powerful not to pull through this. Mark my words.”

“I will,” she promised. “And I don’t see why he needs to know something that will make him want to kill you more than he already does.” She simpered and walked away, Jadren breathing a laugh behind her.

As she settled back in her place next to Gabriel and arranged the blanket over them both, she mused over the exchange. Perhaps a human heart lurked inside Jadren’s carelessly cool exterior. Maybe not. But one thing she was sure of: There was no way Jadren had risked his life for a profitable product line. He’d done it for an entirely different reason, and she suspected she knew what it was.

When Nic woke again, misty morning light sifted through the infirmary, along with the noise of soft conversation and the louder clatter of dishes. Gabriel lay beside her, still asleep or unconscious, no glimmer of magic to indicate he was anywhere closer to reviving. Asa appeared on the other side of Gabriel, giving her a broad healer’s smile. “Good morning, Lady Phel. How are you feeling?”

“Fine. Why isn’t Gabriel awake?”

He kept his serene smile firmly in place, but his wizard-black eyes went opaque. “Sleep is the best thing for him. You know this from your schooling. Lord Phel expended an enormous amount of magic, and now he must replenish it naturally.”

She did know that, but the frustration welled up in her. Why couldn’t she inject her magic into him? Why did she have to wait for him to take it, when he was so incapacitated that he couldn’t? “If we could wake him, he could drink of my magic and replenish that way.”

“No sense wishing for things that cannot be,” Asa said.

The frustration boiled over. “So you suggest I simply give up and do nothing?”

“I suggest that you go and eat, Lady Phel,” Asa replied gently. “Clean up. Put on fresh clothes. Take care of the business of House Phel. Leave Lord Phel to me. This is my expertise.”

She opened her mouth to retort but closed it again. She didn’t necessarily believe Asa had any expertise in this situation—certainly he couldn’t have previous experience with it—but then, neither did she. Sitting up, she stretched, her body much looser and energized this morning than when she’d woken in the night.

Asa came around, laying light fingers on her wrist as she stood, nodding to himself. “I treated you a bit ago, while you still slept. You’re recovering nicely, and the babe is fine.”

“Thank you.” She glanced around, seeing that Jadren was gone and Selly appeared to be sleeping also. “Selly?”

Asa gestured in that direction, and they walked together to Selly’s bedside. “Physically, she’s greatly restored,” he reported, sounding more clinical. “Lord Phel pulled the greatest charge off her stagnant magic, which is why he was worst hit, and Wizard Jadren was able to release a great deal more. After you, he drained Iliana, Han, and Narlis to do it. I’ve been able to tap a bit more this morning, but it’s still stagnant stuff. Nothing yet that anyone can use. I can handle it on my own now, however, and I hope that eventually I can purge all of the repressed magic and allow the fresh to flow and finish the work of cleansing her magical being. Then we’ll see.”