Seeing Danger (Sinclair and Raven #2)(57)

“Focus on your hands, Lilly. We are going to move closer to Toby's injury now.”

He kept his voice calm.

“I-it feels as if I am being stung by a thousand bees, Dev.”

“I have you, love, my hands are right there with yours,” he soothed as her body tensed.

He felt her hands get hotter as she reached the boy's injury. Beneath her fingers Toby grew restless and color filled his face as he began to murmur and thrash about in the bed.

“I-I... it's—”

“Are you in pain, Lilly?” She shook her head. “Tell me what you feel.”

“M-my hands feel hot, like I am being stung by stinging nettle, but my body is cold.”

“Pull your hands away if you can no longer stand it.”

“Am I.... Are my hands healing him?”

Dev was watching Toby's color to make sure his light didn't go out completely, and saw the yellow steadily grow brighter. The tension in Lilly's body worried him and he wondered what effect this would have on her. He could feel the tingling she spoke of beneath his fingers and the chill that was creeping into her body. Wrapping his hands around hers, he lifted them and saw the wound had healed significantly. There was only a cut that would easily heal.

“Dear God! He... it is nearly healed,” Lilly gasped.

Dev felt the boy’s head and checked his pulse, and then looked inside him and saw the bleeding had stopped. Toby was still sleeping but this time it was a healing sleep, and his color and breathing were strong. Lifting Lilly into his arms as her knees buckled, he walked around the bed and lowered her onto the other side, beside Toby. Her color was strong, yet he could see that in doing what she had for the boy she had used the last of her reserves and was now exhausted.

“Wh-what just happened?”

Framing her face, Dev kissed her again. “Do you want to discuss this now, or sleep?”

“Dissscusss.”

She was asleep before she finished the word. Dev watched her, taking in the long sweep of her lashes, the pallor of her cheeks. He loved her because she was his mate. The other half to him. He had the gift of sight and she touch. She was the piece that completed his family's circle. Dear Christ, he could hardly take it in.

Pulling the covers up, he tucked them both in. Toby slept, his face young and innocent, the woman beside him looking remarkably similar. Stroking a hand over her hair, he then gave her a last long look and left the room.



A maid waited outside the door, so Dev told her to have a room and bath prepared for Miss Braithwaite and one for him, and he would return soon to escort her.

“I have the herb here, Dev, and have instructed the kitchen to bring more boiling water.”

Dev took Essie's hands as she appeared before him, her face creased with worry. She stilled, looking up at him.

“No, Dev, please tell me Toby is alive!”

“Yes, he lives, and he is sleeping the sleep of a tired yet recovering young boy, Ess. Now I need you to come with me. I have something to tell you all, but I want to say it only once.”

“I-I don't understand.” She gripped his fingers.

“You will, love. Come.”

She let him lead her to where the others waited in James's study. Nicholas Braithwaite was the first to gain his feet as Essie and Dev entered.

“How are Lilliana and the boy doing, my lord?”

His lip was now puffy and purple and his hair stood on end, and at some stage, he had removed his jacket and necktie. He looked vastly different from the previously elegant and pampered Nicholas Braithwaite.

“I think the boy will make it through the night, and your sister has been taken to a chamber to sleep, as she was both exhausted and hungry,” Dev said, telling the lie as easily as he took his next breath.

Perhaps Braithwaite was changing, yet Dev was still not about to trust him completely and most especially not with both his family’s and Lilly's secrets.

“She asked me to request that you go home and tell your aunt you have received a letter from her stating she has left London briefly to visit one of your estates, as she is in need of fresh air.”

“But she has never done that before. Aunt will be suspicious.”

“Braithwaite, you are foisting a seventy-year-old reprobate on her, which I may add you had no issue with until this evening. Surely you can use that to your advantage when telling the tale.”

Dev had believed there were no similarities between Lilly and her brother, but the glare he got suggested they both had the same backbone.

“There is no need to keep reminding me I have neglected my sister, Sinclair. I will go home at once and tell our aunt. She will believe me, as she would have no reason not to,” Nicholas muttered as he prepared to take his leave. “I will return in the morning with some of Lilly's things. I hope one of your sisters will care for her until I return?”

“They will,” Dev said, pleased that at last the man seemed to be aware of his duty to his sister. “But remember this while you sleep, Braithwaite. Your sister will not forgive the years of neglect and abuse easily, and she will wonder at the abrupt change in you, as do we.”

Nicholas didn't say anything, just nodded.

“Be ready to beg, Braithwaite. With four sisters, this is the best advice I can give you.”

When the door had closed, Dev went to sit before the fire with the rest of his family.