She inclined her head to the other side of the room.

Nick shifted to see … holy crap. It was Aeron. Only he wasn’t a puck anymore. He was now fully restored, too.

How had that happened?

No longer pale-skinned, Aeron had a glowing, tawny complexion. And he was a tall beast, too. Close to Acheron’s massive butt-kicking height. Or maybe he just seemed that tall given his tough aura and that deadly, piercing expression on his face.

“What happened to you?”

A slow blush crept over Aeron’s skin that mottled his cheeks and tempered his badass aura. He shifted slightly in his chair. “Remember what I told you about holding your temper, Malachai?”

“Yeah?”

“Hold your temper.”

A bad feeling went through Nick. “Why are you telling me that?”

Rising to his feet, Aeron put a little more distance between them. Enough that he could bolt if he had to.

Ah, that can’t be good …

Nick’s scowl deepened that someone as powerful and deadly as Aeron would ever be so skittish around him. Honestly? He doubted he could touch him on skill.

And given his current condition, he knew he couldn’t catch him. So then, what was the deal?

“In order to save your life, I had to take a small involuntary blood donation from you.”

Nick froze as those words rattled around his three brain cells. “You drank my blood?”

“Aye.”

He screwed his face up at the mere thought of it. “Dude, that’s so gross. I hope you brushed your teeth afterward. Saw a dentist. Drank a gallon of Listerine.”

Aeron laughed.

“I told you he wouldn’t be angry for it.” Nashira took Nick’s hand and held it in both of hers before she bowed low to him. “I can’t believe that you were dying and your last act was to think to free me.”

“Well, I just figured out how to do it. But I wasn’t completely sure it would work. I wanted to ask Caleb about it, then he got sick before I could. And all this other crap happened. Since I was dying, I figured it was worth a shot before I went. No need in you being trapped in there for the rest of eternity if you could go free.”

Tears filled her lavender eyes as she squeezed his hand. “And that is why we worked together to save your life. Why we have watched over you and worried that you wouldn’t pull through.”

Touched by her concern, Nick wasn’t sure what to say to that.

Aeron came forward finally and handed Nick a small, folded handkerchief.

Nick opened it to find the berries he’d picked for his mother and Caleb. “Ah man, this is great, but how do we open the portal now that Lerabeth is gone?”