“Fuck!” Priscilla screamed, glaring at the wolf that had her calf in its grip. Her bat rose as Priscilla prepared to hit the beast, but the wolf shook its head like her calf was a dog toy and adjusted to sink his teeth in deeper to scrape against bone, and that gave Priscilla the pleasure of hearing her own flesh tearing. The shake jerked Priscilla right off her feet so the bat missed the wolf completely, thudding into the ground.

  But she didn’t hit the ground when Kavil caught her with a grunt so she wasn't dragged away.

  Priscilla didn’t bother trying to right herself, treating Kavil as a pillar to lean against.

  She kicked backwards and hit the wolf in the ribs with her heel, but she didn’t deal enough damage to loosen its grip even with a second kick to its face. Priscilla swung the bat behind her and there was another crunch of bone beneath her bat she could feel reverberate through the bastard’s grip on her.

  The jaw crushing her calf went slack and Priscilla just about cried in relief, leaning her head against Kavil’s shoulder as she pulled her leg out of its jaw. The teeth came out with a wet sound as blood gushed out.

  “Fuck,” Kavil whispered.

  A weak smile wormed its way onto Priscilla’s face as she tried to get her leg underneath her.

  But her knee buckled from the searing sensation that raced through her and Priscilla let out a truly embarrassing cry of pain, and Kavil was once again the only reason that Priscilla hadn’t fully collapsed to the ground. He slowed her descent so he and Priscilla were both kneeling and facing each other.

  Sulaiman had crossed the distance and now stood in front of Priscilla and Kavil, barking, “Get her back to her feet.”

  “I will,” Kavil said, gingerly helping Priscilla adjust her posture so he could reach her calf. She was breathing harshly, trying to not whimper in pain. It was just a calf wound, Priscilla tried to tell herself but it didn't help much as she couldn’t take her eyes off her calf.

  While she had been hurt before, this was the first time Priscilla actually saw the damage that had been done to her.

  Her skin had been raggedly torn open in two horrible semi-circles and blood oozed down the flaps of skin, slowly soaking her pant leg, creeping up her knee and sliding down into her socks. She could see at least an inch into her leg and the sight made her nauseous when she realized she could see bone.

  Asha’s sharp concern flooding their bond cut through the shock and it made Priscilla finally blink.

  Priscilla’s eyes were drawn away by a loud clang of metal as Sulaiman slammed his sword into his shield, his black eyes furious as his gaze swept across the edge of the fog.

  “Let me show you mutts what it really means to play with fire,” Sulaiman said darkly as his sword ignited and he cast a long shadow across the clearing.

  A wolf darted forward, aiming for Priscilla with a determined gleam in its eyes.

  But Sulaiman swung his sword down like an executioner's axe, cutting the wolf’s head off and cauterizing it in a single blow.

  Sulaiman kicked the body towards the edge of the fog with a grim look.

  Kavil’s hand shook as he peeled Priscilla’s pants away from her calf and she hissed as the damp cloth shifted off skin.

  “Do you have to–”

  “Yes,” Kavil cut her off as he poured water onto her calf and then briefly on the burn wound on her arm. “No infections.”

  Sulaiman sent out an arc of flame from his sword when the next two wolves came forward in a two pronged attack. This time, when the fire hit the wolves, the flames spread over their fur hungrily like a river of fire until you couldn’t see the wolf anymore through the flames that consumed them. Flesh crackled and burnt as the wolves began to howl in pain.

  Priscilla thought she saw a black tinge to the fire as the wolves collapsed, but then Kavil laid a hand on her calf and she shut her eyes because that hurt like a MOTHERFUCKER.

  The feeling of Kavil’s magic was always lovely but it did little to distract from how much more this healing hurt than earlier. The wolf had bitten deeper than the crow’s beaks glancing blows and Priscilla hated how she could feel muscle near her bone shift, muscles she wasn’t supposed to be aware of most of the time that she couldn’t not be aware of right now. There was a horrible, soft crack that Priscilla was fairly certain was her bone reknitting together. The bite force must have cracked it, or–fuck.

  Her nails scratched at the dirt as Priscilla breathed shallowly, trying to not cry and failing spectacularly.

  There were the sounds of one more canine meeting its death and then nothing.

  Priscilla opened her eyes, blinking away tears, and found Sulaiman was staring down at her, eyebrows knitted together and his jaw clenched so tight she was afraid he might pull a muscle.

  Heat built in the air as Sulaiman stared at her and she felt the magic in it crackle along her skin painfully and it just made her wound hurt even more. Priscilla’s lip quivered and she tried to hide it by giving Sulaiman a weak smile, hoping it might make whatever was making him unstable would stop.

  Sulaiman jerked his head away and the built up heat spread through the air, turning into flames as it billowed away from Sulaiman. It chased away the fog, curling around the vegetation as it was revealed, until it came upon the wolves, who yelped as they caught fire.

  The wolves that escaped the flames turned tail and sprinted as fast as their paws could carry them. Then, they were out of sight, and disappeared into the wetlands surrounding them. Asha’s alertness faded and the artifact turned its full attention to soothing Priscilla’s soul best it could.

  The crackle of magic in the air ended abruptly as Sulaiman’s sword went dark and Priscilla let out a sigh of relief. But because she had her mouth open, Priscilla couldn’t keep the whimper inside when Kavil delicately grabbed her ankle to turn her leg.

  “I’m just gonna…” Priscilla said weakly as she laid down on the ground, putting arm over her eyes as she leaned even further into Asha’s comfort to try and get through this. “Yeah.”

  Sulaiman stayed on watch as Kavil did his work and Priscilla did her very best to be quiet, focusing on the way that Asha tightened and untightened around Priscilla’s fist, a constant reminder that Priscilla wasn’t alone. The artifact was doing the same thing in their bond, and Priscilla could almost fool herself into thinking Asha was really holding her hand.

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  She didn’t ask for painkillers even though she knew Kavil had them. Priscilla couldn’t afford to have her mind dulled or get sleepy when they had already encountered a monster.

  Wait, a monster…

  “‘laiman,” Priscilla muttered through gritted teeth. “In-incense intact?”

  There was a long moment of quiet and then the rustling of clothes.

  “It’s still burning,” Sulaiman said in an unreadable voice.

  “Fucking scammers,” Priscilla growled.

  Then no one spoke for the next fifteen minutes as Kavil concentrated.

  Priscilla couldn’t think of anything except for the fact that she had been so stupid to over expose herself and get hurt. She had just promised to be careful. She couldn’t even go through one encounter without being the weakest link, despite being the one who knew the most about these creatures.

  The shame of being injured was compounded by her making Kavil waste precious magic that could be used on Illnyea when they found them and it burned in Priscilla’s heart.

  Asha apparently did not appreciate that feeling, considering the artifact’s staunch refusal at that notion filled their bond. The artifact’s disapproval grew when Priscilla's instinctive reaction was to refuse that refusal.

  For a moment, Asha’s soothing paused and it was horrible because Priscilla had nothing to cling to.

  Asha’s next touch was heavy with intent as it wrapped around Priscilla’s soul like a soft, weighted blanket that helped to briefly let Priscilla forget about her pain. The bond between them felt like warm honey as Asha did nothing but show steadfast love. It was simple, but tender care that left Priscilla feeling rotten for trying to argue with her artifact who clearly just wanted Priscilla to be healthy and whole.

  Priscilla could tell the exact moment that Kavil stopped healing her because that was when the pain truly disappeared and Asha eased its presence back to a normal pressure.

  “How’s it look, doc,” Priscilla tried to ask but it came out flat like a statement instead.

  “Your flesh around the area will be weak,” Kavil said, “but I’ll wrap a bandage around it to keep it compressed just in case. Then I have to deal with the burn on your arm.”

  “Alright,” Priscilla said, not wanting to complain that she didn’t think she needed that and be more difficult than she had to be.

  She allowed herself one more long moment to stew inside her emotions as Kavil wrapped the bandage around her leg and then tended to her left arm, but when he was done, Priscilla had pushed that all down because there was no use.

  When Priscilla sat up, she slowly pointed her toe to test out how her leg felt. She thought she could feel what Kavil felt, a strange tightness to her skin under the bandages. Kavil was watching her carefully but Priscilla focused on her leg so she knew her new limitations.

  Sulaiman came to stand next to her as she did her careful stretching, a looming presence. Priscilla debated ignoring him because she wasn’t in the mood for talking but she was an adult. She could look at Sulaiman when he was so clearly demanding her attention.

  Priscilla was surprised at the sight that awaited her.

  Sulaiman held out her dagger, offering to Priscilla hilt first. The blade had been cleaned of blood and fur. Sulaiman met and held her gaze after she had wrenched her eyes away from the dagger.

  “You toss this about without a care,” Sulaiman said and Priscilla would have bristled if not for his strange tone of voice. He wasn’t disapproving, but there was an edge to his words, a sharpness that was possible to ignore.

  Sulaiman’s gaze fell lower to her leg and his expression went thunderous. But he looked away and recomposed himself as if it took effort and his black eyes bored into Priscilla’s once more.

  “Next time, focus on yourself,” Sulaiman said.

  Priscilla… well Priscilla didn’t know what to say to that, and she was drifting towards feeling hurt when Sulaiman’s expression shifted.

  “I…” Sulaiman sighed, looking away briefly as he searched for words. “You… I’m not trying to say I’m ungrateful, but during a battle, you’re always watching my back instead of keeping an eye on your surroundings. I can handle myself and you…”

  His words trailed off and Sulaiman looked like he was frustrated with himself that it clearly wasn’t coming out like he wanted it to. But the hand offering the dagger didn’t move, didn’t waver, even as Sulaiman clearly struggled.

  She took the dagger carefully from Sulaiman without speaking, lingering on the gleaming, clean blade. The weight of it was growing more familiar each time she held it and the hilt was still warm from Sulaiman’s hand.

  Priscilla stared at the dagger for a long moment before sliding it into the sheath.

  “I don’t regret it,” Priscilla said quietly, looking back up.

  Sulaiman’s jaw tightened but before he could speak, Priscilla continued.

  “I think we make a good team,” Priscilla said, minding drifting back to their moment by the campfire, “and I’d be a shitty teammate if I let someone get you in your blindspot. Plus, if you’re really sorry I keep saving your ass–” Priscilla let just a sliver of her normal teasing tone enter her voice, “–you just have to watch my back as much as I watch yours. You’re a quick study, right? Just steal my moves again.”

  She finished the speech with a small, but true smile.

  Sulaiman looked like he was on the verge of saying something before he thought better of it. But he tried again with a simple, “Fine.”

  “I’ll watch your backs too,” Kavil said, entering the conversation with a quiet but insistent voice. Priscilla saw that he too looked frustrated, staring at her bandage wrapped leg. “I, I was surprised and focused on healing instead of the battlefield, and you got hurt because of it.”

  Sulaiman let out a derisive snort, crossing his arms to glare at Kavil.

  “It’s not your fault,” Sulaiman snapped and Kavil met his eyes with a stubborn look settling onto his face.

  “We’re all agreed, then,” Priscilla said, clapping her hands together lightly to diffuse the tension because if it was anyone’s fault Priscilla got hurt, it was her own. “Let’s all keep our peeper’s peeled so none of these fucking monsters get the drop on us anymore. The incense may be a fake, but with all three of us locked in, I don’t think there’s anything we can’t defeat in these stupids fens.”

  Kavil lost some of his intense expression as Priscilla spoke and was staring at her with a half-smile. “We’ve certainly been an unstoppable trio so far.”

  Priscilla returned his smile, regaining some of her bravado as she and Kavil both turned to stare up at Sulaiman. Sulaiman eyes darted between the two of them, looking at them with far more seriousness than the situation warranted.

  But he finally sighed, running a hand through his hair.

  “We are not calling ourselves the unstoppable trio,” Sulaiman said firmly and Kavil made a faux sound of sadness, “but I agree that we do work well together considering how short of a time we’ve been at this.”

  Priscilla laughed at how specific Sulaiman was with his word choice to hide his mushy core, shifting so she could haul herself to her feet.

  But Sulaiman’s outstretched hand was in her space before she could finish the movement. He raised a single eyebrow and pointedly looked at her leg.

  Priscilla didn’t fight the help, grasping Sulaiman’s hand firmly. She kept holding his hand for a moment longer than necessary as she tested putting weight on her leg. But the skin held and Priscilla stood on her own power.

  “Alright,” Priscilla said, “Sulaiman, you have the marble, so lead the way.”

  Sulaiman side-eyed Priscilla but did as she asked as Kavil brushed himself off.

  But after the burst of initial magic, Sulaiman went still before slowly turning.

  “She’s moving,” Sulaiman said, frowning at the marble as he adjusted his position. “This direction.”

  Priscilla had a sinking feeling that she double checked with her compass, aligning herself with Sulaiman.

  Kavil peeked at the device over Priscilla’s shoulder before sucking in a breath. “She’s going south.”

  It went unsaid that the only thing they knew about The Starving One’s camp was that it was in the south.

  Oh Illnyea, what the fuck are you up to now?