Chapter fifteen

Aven winced and flinched away as Bryony put a cold, wet, cloth to his swollen cheek. She sucked in a breath through her teeth and gave him an apologetic look as she lowered her hand down. "I'm sorry, I'm just trying to get the swelling down."

He nodded, but moved away when she reached her hand out to put the cloth to his cheek again. Her hand dropped to her lap and she tilted her head, giving him a look. "You nod, but then you still don't let me help you? Come on, I let you help me, and now it's my turn to help you."

Bryony waved her hand forward to tell him to come closer, so he slowly leaned forward a bit and she smiled. She put the cloth on his cheek again, and he immediately flinched away again, which made her shake her head. She laughed a little. "What? Scared of me? Don't want me helping you?"

She reached her hand out towards his cheek again, but he leaned back farther away to get away from her. Did he really not like her? Or did he not want her close to him and helping him?

"Aven," Bryony said softly and lifted her hand up to show him the cloth. "It's just a cloth, it's not going to hurt you. I'm trying to help, now come over here."

She grabbed his arm, ignoring when he tried to push her away, and pulled him forward. She let go of his arm to grab his hand and squeeze it, making sure he didn't go anywhere. She reached out to put the cloth on his cheek again, but like always, he flinched away from her with wide eyes. She sighed, dropping her hand on her lap again and letting go of his hand to scratch her forehead. "Okay, let me at least wipe all the blood off your face okay? I don't have to do anything else if you don't want me to, but you're covered in blood. What did they do to your head to make that much blood come out?"

Aven didn't answer her question, but that didn't surprise her. She knew he wouldn't.

"Let me clean the blood and then I promise if you want me to stop helping you after that, I will," Bryony said.

Aven slowly nodded and she smiled.

"Okay, now come here and stay here," she laughed, and grabbed his head to push it down a little so she could wipe all the blood off his face. She lifted his head up by his chin and angled his face so she could wipe the spot on his face that had the most blood. Aven flinched a little when the cloth touched his face, but he didn't pull away, he let her clean the blood up.

Bryony grabbed the wooden bowl sitting next to her to wring the cloth out. It was covered in blood. How could such a small cut make him lose so much blood? Bryony didn't understand. She cringed a little as she twisted the cloth, letting the blood soaked up in it pour out. Lots of it got on her hands, but she didn't care. She could wash her hands later.

Bryony turned back to Aven to see him watching her. She gave him a shy smile. "What? This is your blood, not mine. Come closer."

Aven obeyed her and leaned forward more so she could get more of the blood off his face. When she wiped the cloth over his lips and chin, her eyes moved up to look into his, and she nearly jumped when she found him staring at her as well. She slowly lowered her hand from his face, but continued to stare into his eyes as he did the same to her. He was the first to blink, and when he did, she blinked as well but shook her head, turning back to the bowl.

Bryony set the cloth down into the bowl and reached to grab another one that was clean. She stood up from the bed to walk over to the sink and get the cloth wet with cold water. She turned around to look at Aven. "Am I allowed to help you now? Or is it still a no?"

Aven looked up at her. His cheek and eye were getting worse. His eye was almost completely swollen shut now, while the bruise next to his cheekbone was getting darker and looked worse. The other cuts and bruises on him weren't as bad, but the cut on the side of his forehead was still bleeding a little, but not as much as before.

"Okay, well, I'm taking that as a yes," Bryony said as she walked back over to Aven and sat down. Without asking him if he wanted her to, she reached out and put the wet cloth on his swollen eye, expecting him to flinch away, but he didn't.

He looked up at her again and she smiled as she looked at him as well. "See? I don't bite, I told you."

Aven reached up to take the cloth away from her, and she let him, leaning back once he took it. "Just keep it to your eye, hopefully the swelling goes down a little. We still need to have a visit with Elon. Once we're done cleaning you up, Marjorie will take us to him."

Aven nodded a little, but still didn't say anything.

Bryony's stomach suddenly growled a little out of nowhere and her eyes widened a bit before she just laughed. "Wow, I'm hungry. I guess I didn't notice until just now. I wonder if they have food here, would they let me eat some?"

Aven just shrugged, taking a deep breath and closing his eyes as he exhaled slowly. His eyes were closed for a few moments before he slowly opened them again, and Bryony gave him a knowing look. "You're tired, I can tell you are. Why didn't you sleep last night? You lied and said you don't sleep, which, you obviously do and need to. When was the last time you slept?"

Aven shook his head, but Bryony could tell he was really tired. From the looks of it, he probably hadn't slept for a few nights.

"Come here," Bryony said and scooted over, patting the spot next to her. "I'll make you sleep."

Aven shook his head, giving her a look, but she folded her arms. "Aven, you need sleep. I'm not going to see Elon, or going anywhere until you sleep."

Although she wanted to get her parents back as soon as possible, she also wanted Aven to sleep, because he obviously hadn't in a while.

Aven shook his head. "No."

"Excuse me?" Bryony said and gave him a stern look. "You need sleep, now get over here and get sleep. I'll get off the bed so you can have it to rest on. Besides, getting some rest might also help with the swelling on your eye and cheek."

Bryony stood up, making sure to avoid stepping on the sleeping Kit beside the bed, and then turned to Aven. She pointed to the spot she was just sitting at, the spot with the pillow. "Sleep."

Aven shook his head again. "No."

"Don't make me force you," Bryony told him.

"You can't force someone to sleep," Aven said.

"I can knock you out and that's pretty much the same thing."

Aven shook his head. "You can't, even if you tried."

"Oh really?" Bryony said. She walked over to him and jumped on the bed next to him, shoving him down onto the bed, so his face was buried in the pillow. She knew he was hurt on his face and shoving it down into a pillow wasn't the best idea, but he didn't seem to care. Aven rolled over, catching Bryony by surprise, and she gasped in shock as they suddenly both fell off the bed and onto the hard floor.

"Ow, look what you did," Bryony said, scowling at Aven. "My butt hurts now."

She stood up, but as soon as she was up on her feet, Aven kicked her legs, knocking her off her feet, and making her fall over again. She gasped in both pain and shock as she fell on her butt again. She turned around to see Aven smiling innocently at her.

"Oh, you are so paying for that," Bryony said and then jumped forward and onto Aven, making him fall over onto the ground and her land on top of him. She pushed down on his chest and gave him a smug look as he just looked up at her and tilted his head. "Ha! I have you pinned now, you can't escape from my-"

She was cut off as Aven suddenly grabbed her arms, and her eyes widened as he rolled over so now he was on top of her, and he pinned her down. She tried to move and get him off her, but he was stronger than she was. She finally gave up and gave him an amused smile. "Okay okay, you win."

Aven let go of her arms and climbed off her. He stood up and held his hand out to help her up, and she smiled and took it, but instead, yanked on his arm and made him fall over again. Bryony laughed and let go of his hand as Aven fell onto his knees, but lost his balance and fell over all the way. He winced, touching his hand to his head as he sucked in a deep breath through clenched teeth.

"Are you okay?" Bryony asked him as she stopped laughing, noticing the look on his face. "Did I hurt you?"

Aven shook his head as he used the bed to help him stand up. He sat down onto the bed and turned to look at Bryony as she stood up as well. She sat down next to him. "Here, let me see." She gently removed his hand from his eye and nodded as she stared at the now really dark purple and pink bruise on his eye. She gently lifted his eyelid up to take a look at his eye, but he gasped in pain, flinched away, and grabbed her wrist, stopping her.

"Hey, I'm just going to take a look at your eye," Bryony told him softly.

He slowly nodded, but didn't let go of her wrist. Bryony gently lifted his eyelid up again to see that the pupil was dilated and his eye was a little red, but what made Bryony worry the most was the blood that slid out of his eye when she lifted the eyelid.

"There is blood," Bryony said. "Is there supposed to be blood? Is that bad? Oh my gosh, I don't know what to do."

"It's normal."

Bryony looked up to see Marjorie enter the house. She nodded her head towards Aven. "Your eye will sometimes bleed if you get an eye injury, in this case, punched in the eye, and probably multiple times too. Here, this will help you heal faster." She handed some kind of herb thing to Bryony and she wrinkled her nose at the smell.

"What is this?" She asked, bringing it up to her nose to smell it even more, but immediately regretting it as she gagged. She smelled it without bringing it up to her nose, why did she just do that? Now her eyes were watering and she felt like sneezing.

Marjorie laughed a little. "It's special herbs to help heal his wounds faster."

"It stinks," Bryony said, coughing into the sleeve of her arm.

"Yeah, it's supposed to. Don't worry, once you get it wet, the smell will go away," Marjorie said, taking the smelly herbs away from Bryony to walk over to the sink and get them wet. As soon as they touched the water, the smell went away, and Bryony took a deep breath of the nice smelling air again.

"That's better," she said.

Marjorie chuckled. "You are a weird one child."

Bryony grinned. "Yes, why thank you, I know I am." She flipped her hair to the side and gave her a cheeky smile, but immediately laughed as Aven gave her a look.

"Cute," Marjorie said as she handed the now wet herbs to Bryony. "I'll go fetch Elon if you two are ready."

Bryony nodded as she turned to Aven, and gently put the herbs in the wet cloth she was using earlier and wrapped them in it. She put it to his eye. "Yeah, we're ready."

Marjorie nodded as she walked towards the door. "I'll be back in a little bit, don't do anything dumb while I'm gone."

Bryony gave her a look. "Oh yeah, we're definitely going to do something dumb while you're gone," she said sarcastically.

"You never know," Marjorie said before she shut the door.

Bryony turned back to look at Aven. "Seriously though, what dumb things can we do in here anyway? Nothing."

Aven grabbed her hand and pulled it away from his eye, and she opened her mouth to complain and tell him that she was helping him, but stopped when he opened her hand and put the cloth with the herbs on the bed next to him.

"Hey, that's-" Bryony stopped when Aven slowly brushed his fingers across the palm of her hand. He tilted his head to the side as he stared at her hand.

What was he doing? He was so random and weird at times, Bryony never knew what he was thinking or what was going on inside his head. He seemed to know what he was doing though.

"What are you doing?" Bryony asked Aven curiously as he lifted her hand up in front of his face. She tilted her head and watched as he stared at her hand. "Is something on my hand?"

He shook his head and then looked up to meet her gaze. "Close your eyes."

"Wait why? What are you going to do?" Bryony asked.

"Don't worry, I'm just going to help you relax. I can feel how tense you are, and its not healthy being tense all the time," Aven told her quietly.

"You feel how tense I am by feeling my hand?" Bryony asked.

"I have magic."

Oh duh Bryony thought, mentally scolding herself. She was so dumb.

"Okay," Bryony said and then slowly closed her eyes. She didn't know if that was actually what he was going to do, but she trusted him. She heard Aven take a deep breath, before she felt him slide his hand into hers, and she immediately intertwined their fingers together out of habit. Everytime the twins or Greta slid their hands into hers, she always immediately intertwined their fingers. It was a habit, hopefully Aven didn't mind.

"What?" Bryony asked as she heard Aven whisper something.

Wait, he probably didn't say anything to her, he was probably doing his magic. Why did she have to be so dumb, she mentally scolded herself again for being so dumb.

After a moment of silence, Bryony gasped as a sudden feeling of peace came to her and she immediately relaxed, enjoying the feeling. She felt Aven pull his hand away from her, but she tightened her grip on it, not wanting him to let go and have the feeling go away too.

"You can let go, the feeling will stay with you even without touching my hand," Aven reassured her, so she slowly let go of Aven's hand, and he was right, the feeling was still there.

She had never felt this much peace and comfort in a long time.

Bryony opened her eyes and looked over at Aven. "How did you do that?"

He shrugged. "I can do a lot of stuff."

"It's amazing. Can any of your powers work on yourself?" Bryony asked, curious now.

Aven shook his head.

"Oh, that probably explains why you didn't heal yourself when those idiots hurt you huh?"

Aven shook his head again.

"Thank you," Bryony said and smiled. "It feels really nice, I needed this."

He nodded.

Bryony looked down and noticed that tattoo symbol on his shoulder. Oh yeah, she had forgotten about that, but she could see it clearly now. It was a black dragon with a very long tail that was wrapped together in some kind of symbol, its wings spread out wide from behind it. What did that symbol mean? She knew the dragon probably had to do with his dragon side, but the symbol its tail was making didn't look familiar.

Bryony reached a hand out to brush her fingers against the smooth skin of his shoulder and on the tattoo. Aven looked down at his shoulder, watching her closely as she stared at the tattoo. "What is this? What does the symbol mean? And why do you have this?"

She looked up at Aven when he didn't answer her, but he was still staring at the tattoo marking on his shoulder.

"Hey," Bryony said, and he finally looked up at her. "Were you born with this? Or did you get it?"

"Born," Was all Aven said before he moved away from her so her hand dropped from his shoulder, and covered the tattoo marking with his hand. He shook his head.

He obviously didn't want to talk about it, so Bryony just nodded and said, "okay."