Chapter 80

"Lucien…?" Elain gingerly reached out to him, lifting his chin so that she could see his face. "Lucien…?" she could hear the panic in her own voice, and she was having difficulty drawing a complete breath.

"It's okay, Petal…" his voice was strained, and she could hear the pain in it.

"Let me see…" she pulled his shirt open so that she could see the gash across his chest, "Oh, my…" blood was oozing at an alarming rate and Elain pressed her hand to it without thinking. Lucien hissed in pain and Elain looked at his face again. He was deathly pale and she swallowed thickly. "Are you healing yourself?" she breathed, even as his blood leaked between her fingers and ran up her wrist. "Lucien…"

He nodded almost imperceptibly before his eyes closed, and Elain tried not to cry. She continued to press on his chest, watching his face, and hoping that the blood would stop flowing. It had reached her elbows, and she could feel it dripping slowly onto her lap. Unable to make herself look away from Lucien, Elain was only vaguely aware of Nesta coming to stand behind her. Her sister's hand touched Elain's shoulder gently, but she couldn't so much as turn to look up at her.

It wasn't until Lucien opened his eyes, that familiar golden eye clicking and whirring as he focused on her face, that Elain released a breath she hadn't realised she had been holding. "It's okay, Petal." He said again, "You can let go…" he lifted one of his own hands to her bloody wrist, lowering her hand from his chest. Elain could see that the wound had mostly sealed, although a nasty looking line was still visible where he had been sliced open. "I'm sorry," he breathed, and she met his gaze, "I'm sorry…"

Shaking her head, Elain just stared at him. He had nothing to apologise for. One of her bloodied hands lifted back up to take a handful of his shirt tightly in her fist as she tried to slow her panicked breathing down. He had healed himself, and was no longer bleeding. "Are you going to be okay?" she murmured, and he nodded. Elain instantly threw her arms around his neck, not caring that everyone in the training square was currently looking their way. She held herself tightly to him, feeling his blood soak into the front of her dress, and still not caring. "I love you." She breathed, "I love you so much…"

"I know." Lucien's lips brushed her ear and he whispered his response, "and I love you…" his arms encircled Elain's waist as she pulled back enough to meet his eyes. He gave her a small smile, and she went higher on her knees, her hands sliding up the back of his neck, until she could lean forward and press a soft kiss to his forehead. There was blood all over the both of them now, and it took Elain a few more moments to realise this, at which point she went very still. It was evident that Lucien had noticed her reaction, and correctly identified the cause for it. His hands slid beneath her elbows as he lifted her to her feet, getting to his own with a soft groan. "Let's get cleaned up…"

Elain became aware of the others around them then, and she looked up at Nesta who was still standing protectively by her. Her sister's eyes moved over her quickly before she nodded. "You're covered in blood…"

"Yes." Elain murmured, glancing around when Lucien's mother approached them.

Ashk's hand came out, gently touching her son's arm as she looked at him, and Elain watched as he smiled reassuringly at her. "You don't have all that long before Eris will be expecting you…"

"I know." He said softly. "I won't be late…"

Nesta followed Elain and Lucien as they left the training square, and remained behind them all the way back to their room. Elain had been half expecting her sister to leave them then, but Nesta followed them into the room and seated herself on the orange velvet couch by the wall. She had not said a word the entire time, and Elain cast a questioning glance her way as Lucien headed for the bathroom. "Nes?"

"How do you know they won't come for you here?"

"If they try again," Lucien muttered, pausing in the door to the bathroom, "it will be as another spectacle, with an audience, and a way to claim it was an accident."

Nesta just nodded and fell silent once more. Holding her bloodied hands up to show her sister, Elain flicked a glance at her pack. "Could you get me a clean dress?" she asked, and Nesta nodded again. Elain turned and followed Lucien into the bathroom and to the sink. The blood on her hands was no longer sticky, but had dried into a crusty sort of substance, and it had become difficult to bend her fingers. Lucien filled the sink, and then stepped aside so that she could put her hands into the water. She did so, her eyes following him, as he gingerly pulled his ruined shirt off and began filling the bathrub. He was caked in blood nearly the colour of his hair, and Elain's eyes continued to move over him, from his chest to the place he had been wounded on his arm. Before she could say anything, however, Nesta entered the bathroom, draping one of Elain's dresses over a towel rack, and then retreating to the bedroom again, pulling the door most of the way closed. Elain turned her gaze back on Lucien.

"Are you finished healing?" she asked quietly, and he shook his head.

"Not quite."

Elain swallowed thickly, "Are you still in pain?"

He looked at her then, his metallic eye whirring. "Not a great deal." He replied, "It's like when a wound has mostly healed, and you don't feel it until you move it or pull it and it just feels… tight…"

Elain bent further into the sink, washing the blood from her forearms. Lucien undid his pants before kicking them into he corner of the bathroom and stepping into the tub as Elain watched. Once she was satisfied that she had removed all of the blood from her skin, she pulled off her own ruined dress and tossed it into the corner of the room in which Lucien's clothing sat. "…Tallan would have actually killed you."

"Mhm." Lucien's eyes slid toward Elain, meeting her gaze with what appeared to be resignation. Elain's heart ached at that acceptance. Brothers shouldn't be like that with one another, and she couldn't ever imagine what it would have felt like if her sisters had hated one another enough to try and murder one another. Turning away, before he could read her expression, Elain moved to pick up the clean dress Nesta had fetched for her. She slipped it over her head and laced the front quickly before she turned back to Lucien.

Watching him for a moment, Elain bit her lip at the way he was gingerly rubbing at his chest with a washcloth, trying to remove the dried blood from his skin. She took several steps toward him, reaching out to trail her fingers across his broad shoulders as he leaned back against the side of the tub. Then, stopping behind him, Elain leaned over to take the washcloth from his hand and she dipped it slowly into the water before returning it to his chest. Carefully, she worked at washing him clean, making sure she was especially gentle as she moved over the faint scar she could still make out which was evidently still healing.

"When Tamlin injured you last time…" she began softly, still stroking methodically with the washcloth. "You needed to sleep to rest after you healed…"

"I did."

"…Will that happen again?"

"After Eris'' meeting." He said, and she could hear the exhaustion in his voice. Elain dipped the washcloth again, leaning further over his shoulder to do so, before wiping the last of the blood from him.

"I'm not letting you out of my sight for the rest of the day." She told him simply and he chuckled lightly.

"I like the sound of that."

"Good." Elain dropped the washcloth back into the water, both of her hands sliding up his arms to his shoulder again as she leaned over him once more. Lucien looked up at her with a smile and Elain bent to press a soft kiss to his forehead. "I'll get you some fresh clothes." She murmured, straightening again.

"Thank you." He smiled gratefully at her before sliding down into the water to rinse his hair and Elain headed back out into the bedroom, where Nesta was still sitting and waiting on the orange couch.

"Is he okay?" her sister asked, and Elain nodded.

"Yes."

"I've never seen you like that…" Nesta's voice was soft and Elain paused, picking up Lucien's pack. She looked around at her older sister and considered her response for a moment.

"I'd just seen my mate hurt…"

"I know." Nesta murmured, her long fingers trailing over her dress, smoothing it down. "You do feel it as much as he does…"

"Yes, Nesta." Elain watched her sister take that in, before she opened the pack and began sorting through the clean shirts inside. When she had chosen what Lucien needed, she took them back into the bathroom for him