Five days later, Holly had returned to Orynth, supporting Vaughan as blood leaked from his stomach. Rowan watched the pair in hawk form before shifting and taking Vaughan's weight off his sister. She immediately fell to the ground along with Vaughan. Holly swore at him, then rose. Rowan's eyes widened as he realised they had been supporting each other. He took one look at her face, and called for a healer. "Yeah, I got stabbed too you idiot," she gasped. She sounded like she was about to pass out.

"Just come with me," he said harshly. She made a face at him, then winced in pain at the bruises and cuts covering her face. "Here, I'll take Vaughan. Do you think you can make it?"

"Maybe…" She clapped a hand to her mouth, and when she took it away, blood soaked through her skin. She shook it off her hand and sped after Rowan, who was taking the fastest route possible. "Got ambushed by a group of maybe fifteen Valg. And there was a prince and princess which really didn't help." She coughed up blood again.

"Don't talk, or it might kill you." Vaughan moaned in pain as Rowan pushed him into one of the guest bedrooms. "Can you make your way to the room you stayed in before?"

"I-" More coughing.

"I'll take it from here," a voice spoke from behind them. Yrene Westfall. She took Holly's arm gently and took her to the room she'd stayed in before. Holly glanced behind her and a trail of blood followed her. She made a mental note to clean that up. Yrene touched her shoulder and light flooded through her, working fiercely to heal it. Holly thrashed against her will and Yrene snatched her hand away.

"Valg," Yrene managed. "There's some Valg magic inside of you. I-I can't." She called for another healer, a relatively young one and she also hissed at the Valg. Wait… she hadn't been hit by magic. No, that was all spears and swords and arrows. The magic they mistook for Valg magic was her arcane magic.

"Yrene, leave unless you want to be smoked to cinders," Holly said, gasping for breath afterwards. Yrene obeyed reluctantly and took the other healer with her as Holly dropped onto the bed. She looked for a certain aspect of her magic- the sun, which came under celestial magic. The sun had incredible healing abilities, and she summoned one tiny droplet of it to pour on her wounds. As soon as she did, she threw up and passed out.

Holly was shaken awake by a Fae with pine green eyes. She blinked, and it was Rowan, eyebrows furrowed with worry as he kept scanning her face. "I'm alive you know," she said.

"Excuse me if you were covered in blood and Yrene couldn't get past the Valg magic," he responded.

"That wasn't Valg magic."

"But Yrene said-"

"She doesn't know anything about arcane magic, does she now?" Rowan shut his mouth, and there was silence for a few moments. Then he spoke again.

"I'm sorry for believing you were dead." Holly Whitethorn smiled- a real genuine smile- for the first time in years.

"I know," she whispered as she pulled him down next to her.