Intended Series Collection: Books 1-6 by Abigail Grant (most important books to read TXT) 📕

"I'm here and I'm alive," I say against her unruly hair.

She leans away from me, giving me a once over. "El, you look like crap," she says.

I snort and wipe my tears away with the back of my hand. "I'm sure I do. I haven't showered in like four days and I've been trouncing all over the forest."

Kassy's eyes are sad as she continues to peruse me. "You are all beat up too." She sniffles again at me. "That demon hurt you bad, didn't he?" she asks.

I nod and try to hold back the next round of tears. "But he's gone now. We are both safe from him forever."

She nods along with me. "Good, because I was about ready to go kick some demon butt, Buffy style." Her face is so serious that I can't help but giggle at her. She never fails to lighten the mood.

"I would've liked to see that." I say and relax against the comfortable couch, finally feeling at home.

Gavin returns with his grandma in tow. She is carrying bowls of brown mush like the stuff she put on me last time I was hurt, and my pain eases just from the knowledge of what that “Cole Cream” is capable of. Gavin sits next to me on the comfortable couch and takes my hand in his.

"All right, dear. Why don't you point out some spots that you were hurt, and I'll start working on healing them?" Gram says from her seat on the coffee table in front of me.

I nod and point to my sore cheek. "My face feels pretty bad. I'm sure it looks awful." I run my fingers along my swollen eyelid.

“It actually has healed quite a bit since I found you,” Gavin says next to me.

Gram dips her fingers in the goop and starts to apply the paste to my cheek and neck along the one side. "How did this happen, if you don't mind me asking?" she says as she works.

"I guess Thrane wasn't one for back talk. He got upset when I called him pathetic," I say, not caring that everyone is listening. I'm done being shy and afraid. Thrane is gone and can't hurt me anymore. “There was an ego on that one.”

A small smile forms on Gram's face. She looks almost amused by my words. "Well, he must not have known what he was getting into with you, then." She chuckles lightly. "I'm sure you took him off guard. He was probably used to people cowering before him."

I shrug. "It could have been much worse. If Gavin hadn't have found me when he did, who knows where I’d be."

Gavin rubs a hand up and down my back, soothing me.

"Honestly, sweetie. I think you would've made it back to us even if Gavin hadn't found you. You have surprised everyone here,” Camilla says from her spot next to me.

I turn just enough to see her proud eyes, not wanting to move too much and mess up Gram's work.

Gram finishes up applying her medicine to my neck and holds her messy hands up. "Where else, hun? Is that all?" she asks, looking me over.

Before I can speak, Gavin bends forward and grabs my leg. He lifts it up so that my wrapped ankle is resting on his Grandmother's lap. "Her ankle is pretty busted up. I don't think your medicine is going to help the bone heal but I'm sure it will help with the pain."

Gram gently unwraps the makeshift cast and studies my broken ankle. Her face is grim. "This is really awful, El. How in the world did you hurt it so badly?”

I avoid eye contact with everyone and stare at my foot on her lap. "Well, Thrane didn't want me to try to escape when he had to leave for a while. He broke my ankle so that I'd stay put." I laugh humorlessly. "I guess that's another thing he shouldn’t have underestimated about me."

Kassy places a hand on her heart like she's been shot, and new tears fill her eyes. "That is horrible, El."

I just nod, not knowing what else to say. I watch as Gram applies a thick layer of the Cole Cream to my leg and swollen ankle. The pain subsides, and I release a long slow breath.

"She climbed down the side of a two-story brick wall and ran for an entire night on this busted ankle," Gavin says next to me.

I look up into his glowing eyes and nod. "Well, I told you, I knew you were out there somewhere, and I wasn’t giving up."

Gavin shakes his head at me like he thinks I'm crazy and then leans in to place an agonizingly sweet kiss on my surprised lips. I kiss him back slowly, forgetting about the rest of the world for a moment, until I hear someone clear their throat.

I pull away from Gavin and blush immediately when I see all of the amused eyes watching us. Kassy and Alexa look positively giddy, which brings a happy smile to my goop-covered face. Gavin chuckles next to me and rubs soothing circles along my back while I get the Gram treatment.

With everything that has been going on in my life lately, I shouldn't feel peaceful, but at this moment, I do.

***

"Aella Ganis. You are quite lovely to look at. That little ferret was correct with his description." Something about this voice is familiar but I can't place my finger on it. I want to open my eyes and see the man talking to me, but I can't.

"Who are you?" I ask him.

I hear a low chuckle as if it rumbles in the deepest well. The sound is seductive while also terrifying. "I am the one who has been looking for you. I never even knew you were alive until a few weeks ago. You are so much smaller than your parents."

I struggle harder to open my eyes, needing to see the demon in front of