Chapter Fifty-Three: Find Her

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I must have blacked out at some point because one minute I was staring at the iron door of the interrogation room and the next I was surrounded by tents. Grunting as my knees gave out without warning, I blinked rapidly to bring my surroundings into focus. The camp. I was at the camp. We're safe. I could relax. Soldiers in blue rushed towards us as Lilly gave a curse and hauled me up into his arms. The position caused my vision to swim from the way the wounds in my chest squeezed together and his arm pressed against them.

Divines, I'd almost prefer dying at this point. I thought, my mouth felt like a desert and the constant agony had my stomach rolling.

Inhaling deeply, I mentally tried to push the pain away as my internal temperature flashed from hot to cold and back again. This was bad. Very, very bad. Those fucking idiots left the iron inside of me for too long, the iron had seeped into my blood. Unless of course that was the plan...in that case they were brilliant. It wouldn't kill me but it would make me extremely sick and weak until it faded from my system. But that could take months that we didn't have and the wounds I was suffering from would definitely kill me first.

Choking back the need to hack up whatever was climbing up my throat, I sighed in relief as I was laid on something soft and stationary. Blinking heavily up at the grayish blue ceiling of my tent that I could have sworn was royal blue at one point, a dull buzzing filled my ears. My brows twitched but I was more concerned with the gurgling sound coming from my throat. Rolled to my side quickly, my vision was filled with black leather boots and a cream carpet that got soaked in what I think were the remains of my turnip sandwich.

A muffled sound came again as I was carefully turned onto my back once more. Something cool was placed on my forehead and I inhaled sharply at the momentary relief it brought me. Shivers racked my overheated body but the relief was enough to bring things back into focus.

"Macha, can you hear me? I've called the healer, she's on her way. You're going to be okay. Stay with me alright? Keep your eyes open."

Letting my head flop to the side, I stared into pools of silver and worked hard to make my mouth move, "She can't...help me."

"Don't say that. She's a very respected healer, she'll fix you right up. And then I can yell at you for getting hurt." Cillian snapped, squeezing my limp hand tightly.

I wanted to laugh but I barely had the energy to stay conscious and telling him how to keep me from dying was more important. Licking my lips, I rasped, "It's-It's iron exposure."

The fear that I had seen in his eyes earlier, that caused me more pain than the iron inflicted injuries had, returned. Like me, he knew what it meant. Iron exposure couldn't be treated, the only thing the healer could do was make me comfortable as it ran its course. A course that would last for Divines only knew how long while my injuries killed me before then.

"I shouldn't have traveled you. It sped up the process." Cillian growled, the self directed anger obvious from the way he glared down at the furs. "How didn't I notice? I should have noticed."

"Stop." I admonished him, my eyes sliding over the sharp planes of his face. "I hid it until now. I can re-relax here."

Instead of giving him comfort, my words caused his silver brows to furrow deeply and his full lips to thin, "You mean you feel comfortable enough to die here. You're going to make me watch you die again."

"No. Not if you do what I tell you to." I rushed out on a shiver, suddenly freezing.

Raw hope flooded his gaze, "What? What do you need me to do?"

          

Teeth clattering, I snapped them together as the room swirled, "Find her."

"Find who?"

"My ex...collect...deal...talk to Dani...she knows." I bit out before my vision went from gray to black as I succumbed to the pain. But the nothingness didn't last long because my eyes opened seconds later to find blazing dark blue eyes drilling into my soul.

Pushing up onto my elbows, I gave him a slow look over, "Sooooo....I'm sensing a lot of hostility."

"Really? How fucking observant of you." He snarled.

With a sigh, I got to my feet and looked down at the realm's beauty before looking at the raging Divine, "Is this going to be regular thing because-"

"I have never in my entire life seen a Fae with so little regard for their own life!" He roared, blue locks bouncing on his head with the force. "The amount of life threatening situations you mange to get yourself into, is fucking astounding! You don't even have a good reason for all of the shit you get into either! First, it was the death deal! And I can't even begin to describe how completely batshit insane that decision was! Even I wouldn't do that! ME! And now, that one woman war army bullshit you just pulled-"

"You helped me!" I shouted in disbelief. Why the fuck was he so angry?

The vein in his neck throbbed concerningly as his eyes glowed brighter and Malachy screamed, "That's not the fucking point! You could have gotten yourself killed, for good this time! They weren't fucking around with those iron grappling hooks, Macha! For Divines sake, who fucking raised you?"

"No one, you insufferable twat!"

His chest heaved as he blinked at the remembrance, "Right." Visibly relaxing, Malachy lifted his chin and straightened his shoulders, "That changes now then. I've watched you your entire life-"

"Cause that's not creepy as fuck." I muttered, crossing my arms over my chest.

He shot me nasty glare, "So I'm going to repeat every lecture you never heard me scream at you as I watched you do something stupid. Let's begin with-"

Dropping my arms, I stepped forward, "Wait a minute, I'm almost three thousand years old! You can't lecture me on-

"The day you left my nut sack was the day I gained the irrefutable right to lecture you no matter how fucking grown you think you are. So sit your ass down and listen." And the motherfucker actually had the gall to point at the floor.

Raising my chin, we stared each other down until he took a step forward and my ass hit the floor quickly. Not because he intimidated me or because I really wasn't sure who'd win in a fight, "I'm sitting because my feet hurt. Not because you told me to."

He snorted rudely before slapping his hands together, "As I was saying let's start with the day you said your first cuss word because that's where I think everything started going down hill."

Wrinkling my nose, I snarked, "Oh? It wasn't the day I left your deranged nut sack?"

Ignoring me, he continued, "That absolutely horrendous fucking potty mouth of yours has gotten you into more trouble than I can count-"

"My potty mouth?" I blurted out, completely bewildered.

"And it all started with that shitty guard you had when you were four hundred. The blame is equally on him but you should have known better than that, Macha!" Malachy stated, working himself up again. "I mean, you knew it was a bad phrase. And I know you knew that it was becuase you grinned like a fucking little shit after you said it! You made that poor maid cry! What kind of child does that? What the hell were you thinking! "

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