Page 28 of The Princess of Portals

Conner grinned at me. “Yeah, but you’re not seeing clearly right now. You wanted to charge into battle with blood oozing out of you.”

“I don’t have blood oozing out of me.”

“Not anymore. I fixed that for you.”

“Thanks.”

“You’re very welcome. If you’d kept going, you would have passed out long before you found the Templar.”

“You’re exaggerating.”

Conner gasped, pretending to look offended. “I would never!”

“My cuts were tiny.”

“Haven’t you ever heard the idiom ‘death by a thousand cuts’?”

“Are you referring to my injuries or hinting at something else?”

Conner chuckled.

“He has a point, Seven,” said Kato. “You do have a tendency to take on too many problems. Those problems wear you down, little by little.”

“Or sometimes not so little,” Conner added. “You lost a lot of blood because of your confrontation with the Templar.”

I rubbed my forehead. “That would explain the dizziness.”

“It also explains your impaired judgment,” Kato said.

I shot him a sardonic smile. Har, har, very funny.

“Drink.” Conner handed me a glass of orange juice.

I emptied the glass in a single go. It was good, and I was really thirsty. “You know, it’s a lot less fun for me when you two agree instead of argue.”

They both snorted in unison.

I looked at Kato. “May I sit up now, or are you going to threaten to lock me in my house again?”

Conner turned toward Kato, clearly surprised. “You threatened to lock her in her house?”

“For her own safety.”

“Wait, you were actually going to do that?” I choked out.

Conner laughed. “Why are you so surprised?”

“Well, it’s a bit extreme, don’t you think?”

Conner shrugged. “Yeah, because Kato always deals with problems in a relaxed and understated manner.”

“You would have done the same.”

“Lock her in her house? Absolutely not! That’s barbaric.” My smile faded when Conner followed that statement up with another, less enjoyable one. “I would have just used a spell to put her to sleep.”

“You’re both insane.” I rose slowly from the sofa.

Conner rose too, hugging me to him. “And that’s why you like us so much!”