Chapter 401

Lucien felt every step Elain hit on her fall. He didn't think his heart was beating at all when she reached the bottom and didn't move, and he exhaled a deep shuddering breath. He was moving before he'd even realised, crashing to his knees beside her and wrapping his arms around her, trying to lift her, to see her face. When she gave a small pained sound, Lucien's hands froze, and he hesitated, not knowing where to touch her. "Petal…?" he breathed, fear shuddering through him. He knew that she was hurt; he'd seen that dark haired prick strike her before the bastard had thrown her down the stairs, but the fact that she lay here now, shivering but otherwise unmoving scared him more than anything else. Everything in Lucien had been screaming at him to find his mate, to get to her, since he had found that library empty, and now that he had her in his arms, he didn't know what to do. His brain was stuck on the fact that she was hurt, and he couldn't think or focus on anything else.

Swallowing thickly when Elain slowly lifted her head, Lucien's blood turned hot once more at the sight of her face. She was covered in blood that seemed to be coming from both her nose and her mouth, and he could easily see that her nose was broken. Elain's gentle brown eyes were narrowed in pain, and dirty tears trailed her cheeks. That dark haired son of a whoring bitch was going to die, and Lucien was going to kill him. He would have gotten up then and torched the prick, but Elain's hands gripped his jacket, and he softened at the way she held on to him. He thought she might have been trying to say something, but pain laced through him and he knew that it had been hers, shooting down the bond.

There was talking, behind and above him, but Lucien ignored it, focusing on Elain and her face. She lifted one of her hands to her face, but did not touch. Her eyes met his then as she whimpered. "My nose…"

"Is broken." He confirmed, and he felt her despair.

"Can you…?" her voice was barely more than a whisper, and Lucien looked at her nose more closely.

"I'll have to set it before I can heal it…" he told her, and a flash in his memory took him back under the mountain. He'd once said the same thing to Feyre when she had been locked in her cell before her trials. He'd been able to heal her once, before Amarantha had punished him for helping her during the first trial and he had been unable to return.

"Okay…" Elain's hands tightened on his jacket, and he allowed one of his own hands to slide down her arm from her shoulder to her elbow. He glanced over his own shoulder then to see Helion approaching the dais, and he looked back to Elain. "Lucien…"

Lucien swallowed. He knew that he would hurt her, and he did not want to do that. He could not heal her nose however, until it was straight and as it should be. "This will hurt…" he murmured, "But only for a moment." Feyre had passed out when he'd done the same to her, but she had been mortal then, Lucien reminded himself.

"Do it." Elain replied, pulling him closer by the jacket, "It's okay."

"I'm sorry." Lucien moved quickly, gripping Elain's nose and straightening it with a single movement. He felt her jerk backwards as there was a solid crack and more tears streaked down her face, taking more of the blood to her chin. A flash of pain reached him down the bond, and he drew her toward himself once more, not yet finished. Laying a hand carefully to Elain's cheek, Lucien focused on repairing what he could. Once he had begun he found that it was not only her nose which required attention, and he supposed that he should have expected that having seen her fall down the stairs. He was thankful, however, that it wasn't so bad. Once he'd taken care of the wound at her throat, he lowered his hand and Elain opened her eyes to meet his gaze.

"Thank you." She breathed and Lucien leaned into her, pressing a kiss to her forehead. When he pulled back he saw her looking over his shoulder and, without having to turn around, he knew that Helion stood behind him.

Lucien's gaze went to the dais then, and he saw the dark haired faerie standing beside the throne. Sitting on the throne was Colm, who was looking straight back down at them.

Helion's voice broke the unexpected silence of the room. "You're in my seat."