The silence is deafening. It stretches on far longer than it ever has between me and these three legacies as we watch Maven sleep deeply. Some of the color finally returns to her face. She's so pretty it hurts my chest, and it's difficult to breathe as I try to convince myself to leave the room now that I know she's all right.
I can't make myself leave her.
But I need to.
Fuck, I hate this.
"What happened?" Crypt finally rasps.
Silas wipes the dried blood from cutting his hand earlier onto his pants, obviously not caring about ruining the poor suit. "We were arguing, and then she collapsed outside the Matched Ball. It happened out of nowhere."
I reach out and feel the back of Maven's hand. It doesn't feel warm to me, which is how I know she must be freezing cold. "Baelfire. Warm her up."
He gives me a testy look, smacking my hand away from our keeper before he walks to the other side of the bed.
"Hold her without permission, and your mate will be down to three matches," Crypt warns.
Baelfire shakes his head, mumbling something about being stuck with a bunch of psychopaths as he gently adjusts Maven to one side of the mattress, grabs an extra blanket from a nearby bed, and tosses it over both of them. At least now his obnoxiously excessive body heat will transfer to her, though it looks like half his ass is hanging off the bed. I guess it's his fault for being roughly the size of an ox with basically the equivalent in brain power.
I catch Crypt staring at me again, but now one side of his mouth is pulled up into a smirk.
"What? Why are you making that face at me?" I demand. "Stop. You're fucking creepy."
"You're just as far gone for her as the rest of us. Aren't you."
It's not a question. He's stating this accusation, and I immediately shake my head.
"The gods assigned her as my keeper, so it's not like I want her to fuckingdie,but I don't care about her. Not like that."
"Bullshit," Silas snorts. "Look how red his face is."
I resist the urge to cover my cheeks, which have always been annoyingly blush-prone, and feign aloofness once more. "You three can believe whatever you want, but Maven is nothing to me. I don't feel?—"
I cut off when Crypt's hand is suddenly wrapped around my throat, bruising me as he pins me to the nearest wall. His eyes gleam with malicious threat.
"Your feelings don't interest me, Frost. But that prophetess insinuated that you believe your curse could hurt Maven. Anything that concerns her concerns me, so spit it out."
I'm getting really fucking tired of these jerks going for my throat. My anger quickly turns into ice crackling up the wall behind me. When I focus my power, Crypt lurches away just as fatally sharp ice spikes explode into existence, surrounding me like a shield.
I allow them to melt instantly and snap, "Leave me the fuck alone."
But Silas is a persistent asshole and takes a defensive stance, his bloodied crystal in hand. "Much as I hate admitting it, he's right. We need to know if you're a risk to Maven. Don't share all of your curse if you don't need to, but tell us any way it could hurt her."
I rub my face. Godsdamn it. They're not going to let this go.
And maybe they're right not to. After all…Ihavebeen putting her at risk. No matter what Pia thinks, I know it's my fault she's been bedridden twice within the space of twenty-four hours. It correlates too much with how spectacularly I've been failing at fighting my emotions.
"Fine," I mutter, breathing out a puff of frigid air before I regard all three of them. "But you can't kill me."
Baelfire snorts derisively. "Is that a challenge? Because I definitely could if I wanted to."
“Shut up, dragon. I'll tell you three about it, but there better not be any more trips to Limbo," I say pointedly, glaring at Crypt.
"As if I'd kill you in such a mundane way. Spit it out already."
I swallow and look back down at Maven. She looks so peaceful in her sleep, with her hair sprawled across the pillow and her dark lashes settled on her cheeks. My chest aches as I imagine seeing her like this every morning, safe and warm in silk sheets with the promise of nothing but pleasure and comfort ahead for her.
Cherishing her would be as easy as breathing.
