“Fuck you, Maura. You were trying to torture me.” She could try to make me afraid of Fear, but he would be furious ather.That was obvious from the quiet terror that emanated from her, no matter how much she tried to look steely and unphased.
“For Fieran’s sake. You better hope he doesn’t find out you were talking with Ander.” She was trying to buy my silence with my own fear.
I puked again, though this time there was nothing but bile for me to empty across the shining floor.
She cursed again. “I’m going to get help. Stay here.”
She ran.
But she was gone, and my mind was unspooling, my head too heavy to hold up.
I stumbled for the door. Careened out into the hallway. Somehow, I stumbled through the maze and into the enormous entry, with the waterfall misting the air and the atrium open to the sky above.
Shocked faces went by in a blur.
Then suddenly, I was staggering against a hard chest.
Powerful arms swept me up, cradling me easily. I breathed in the scent of his soap and skin, of smoke and pine, even stronger than the smell of vomit and coppery blood that clung to me.
Fieran.
I knew him before the blur in my vision resolved into his face.
“Who did this to you?” he asked fiercely.
I meant to answer him, but the world was so dark and wobbly and speaking seemed so exhausting. As much as I didn’t want to die without blaming Maura, I found my head on his shoulder, my eyes drifting closed.
Fuck. I shouldn’t rest my head on his shoulder. I hated him. But not enough to lift my head. It felt so heavy, my neck weak and wobbly.
“You’re going to be all right, Cara. I’m taking you to the healer.”
The world sped past us, he was moving so quickly, and I squeezed my eyes shut so I wouldn’t puke again.
“Healer!” he called, and there was a note of desperation in his voice that didn’t make sense.
We burst through a pair of doors, and then he was laying me down on a table. He kept his arm under my head, cradling me, his body bent low, close to mine.
“Help her,” he ordered, his voice rough and commanding.
The next moments came to me in bits and pieces as I floated in and out and just above sleep.
“Nasty head injury…they heal differently, even with the potion. We should keep her close…she needs to sleep, but she should be observed…”
I shivered and found myself wrapped in his arms.
“We can’t treat her while you hold her.”
“I think you can.”
Then I was moving again, being carried away. “She doesn’t need to stay here. I’ll take care of her myself.”
His throat was against my face as he held me. Memories washed over me in the vague haze of my mind. For a moment, I was small again, falling asleep in one place and waking in my own bed, never questioning being carried home. Contentment, warmth, safety. It felt as if I’d fallen through time to something I hadn’t felt in years.
Being protected. Being cared for.
“Who did this to you?” he demanded, stroking my hair back from my face. His palm was calloused and warm, and his gaze softened when I turned my face into his hand. “Why wasn’t Maura with you?”
He thought I’d been set upon by shifters or Fae?
