Ashlynn stood, the Blood Acorn still cradled carefully in the palm of one hand while she reached out with the other to pull Ollie up from where he knelt on the floor.
"Take off your tunic," she said in a tone that reminded Ollie of his mother when he was much younger, and she needed to tend to his scrapes and bruises. "Then lie down on the bed. This will likely hurt, and you may not be able to hold yourself upright. Do you want something to bite down on?" Ashlynn asked, glancing around the room to see if there was anything more reasonable to offer him to bite into than a handkerchief.
"No, but I may cry out," Ollie said as his fingers quickly worked at the laces of his tunic before he pulled it over his head, revealing a physique that was even more toned and sculpted than it had been on the night Ashlynn cut into his chest in order to bestow the seed of witchcraft on him.
