“Lugh? You need to wake up. I need to know you’re okay. Please.”

He stirred, and this time, his fluttering eyelids opened. The frost-green depths were filled with pain, but his pupils weren’t dilated, and there was no sign of confusion.

“Fuck,” he muttered, “did you catch the number of that bus?”

I half laughed, half sobbed. “Are you hurt?”

“Don’t know.” He shifted and almost immediately hissed. Pain swept across his face, and beads of sweat broke out across his forehead. “It would appear I’ve damaged my arm.”

“Damaged how? Bruised? Broken? There’s a big difference you know, brother.”

“Speaking from previous experience, I would say broken.”

“Then don’t move any more. I’ll call in the medics—”

“I’m not about to leave this area without discovering what the fuck that spell was protecting.”

“You can’t—”

“I can and will. It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve broken something on a hunt, and I daresay it won’t be the last. You got anything in that pack resembling a medical kit or bandage?”

His expression said he was set on this course of action, and past experience said there was little point in arguing about it.

Which had never stopped me before and damn well wouldn’t now.

“If you won’t agree to calling an ambulance, then at least let me call Darby.”

He hesitated. “She’s with her brother and his new bub—”

“And if you don’t think she’d abandon them all to patch you up, you’re a bigger idiot than I thought.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

A fact I knew well enough. “She appointed herself troop healer, and she was utterly serious about it. Trust me, she’ll get very annoyed if we don’t call her.”

He rolled his eyes. “Fine, but not until we know what that spell was hiding.”

“Deal.” I pulled the backpack around and unzipped it. “To answer your earlier question, I don’t have a medical kit, but I do have a couple of scarves.”

“Why on earth do you have scarves?”

“Because it’s winter and my neck gets cold. Obviously.”

His half laugh ended in a grimace, and more sweat rolled down the side of his face. “We’ll use one to tie on a brace and the other as a sling. Do want to find a couple of straight pieces of wood while I lever myself into a sitting position?”

I nodded and rose. There wasn’t much in the way of straight wood in the general area, but I picked up a couple of suitable-looking branches that still held an echo of life, even if it was fouled with whatever poisoned this area. I chased that foulness away, then carefully manipulated the wood fibers into a straighter, stronger form. Strangely, despite the fact both branches had been shed from their parent long ago, their song increased in intensity after my touch. Whatever ailed this area could be fixed with a little pixie help.

Lugh was bathed in sweat by the time I returned, and his expression pinched with pain. I knelt beside him and carefully braced his arm without bothering to remove his coat. He assured me there weren’t any bones sticking out, that it was at worst a simple break, and I took him at his word. Even if it weren’t true, there wasn’t much more I could do than what I already had.