Kristof took my left hand and traced his thumb around the stab wound through my palm. His lips moved. I strained to hear what he was saying, then picked up a few words of Greek and recognized a minor healing incantation. A witch spell, one of the few he knew. I’d taught it to him when we’d been together, a little something for his boys, to make the cuts and bruises of childhood easier. He’d struggled with the spell, but had insisted on perfecting it, practicing more than he ever would for any spell of true power.

When he finished, he glanced up at me sheepishly. “Guess you need something stronger than that.”

My eyes filled. “No, that was perfect. Thank you.”

I leaned forward and pressed my lips against his, closing my eyes as the warmth of his skin chased away the last niggling bits of cold from that place. I put my hands to his cheeks as I kissed him and the heat radiated through, as soothing as Trsiel’s healing touch, maybe more.

He wrapped his hands in my hair and kissed me back, and I tasted my own fear mingling with his, knew how worried, how frightened he’d been for me. How many times in my life would I have given anything for this, to come home after something awful and have someone there waiting for me. To have Kris there.

“I need to finish this,” I said, pulling back to look up at Kristof. “I put Savannah in danger, and I need to get her out of it. But after that, it has to stop. This one last thing, and it’s over. I’ll let her go.”

His arms tightened around me and he pulled me to him. “You don’t have to let her go, Eve. You just need to step back, trust that she’ll be okay, and look after yourself.”

“I know.”

We sat there for another couple of minutes. Then it was time to let him know what I’d found, and figure out what to do about it.

Before I began, Kristof decided we should called Trsiel in. Trsiel insisted on healing me before we got to work. Any pain from my injuries was gone. The hair would grow back. The missing tooth wouldn’t. As for the ear and other open wounds, he could close them, but warned me they’d likely scar, a reminder of the price I’d nearly paid to stop this Nix.

As I finished telling them how Dachev had captured the Nix, Kristof paced the tiny room.

He shook his head. “I had hoped that when this Dachev caught the Nix, he’d both initiated and carried out the capture, but it’s now obvious that he only took advantage of a preexisting circumstance.”