“You don’t want to do this. You are strong, Baby. So strong.”
Nothing. Nothing save for a slight flicker in his eyes. A ripple through his tense body.
I take a deep breath. I don’t dare to hope, but that wassomething. Some sign that he might have heard me.
“You can fight them, Baby. Do it for me.”
Jade blinks. The white drains from his eyes. He lifts his head. He looks right at me with dazzling emerald eyes. His eyes. My Jade.
My breath catches in my throat and my lungs stop working.
His hands pull away from the sundial like it is taking a huge amount of effort. As if the stone is molten and his burned flesh melded to it. I hold his gaze and will him on, lending him what strength I can.
He staggers back a step with a cry. Then he crumples. I leap forward and catch him in my arms before I remember about the magic shield. But I have him. The soft weight of him is in my arms, so the magic wall must be gone.
Everyone crowds us. Brodie snatches up Jade’s limp wrist and checks his pulse. The healer looks at me and nods. My lungs begin to work again, releasing a tight breath and sucking in some fresh oxygen.
Jade is going to be alright.
I open my mouth to say something, but a flash of purple in the sky snatches my words away. It’s like lightning, but far more vivid. It lights up the entire sky and then vanishes. Everyone flinches, their bodies physically recoiling from something I cannot feel.
“What’s happening!” I gasp.
“The portals have opened. The fey have stepped through.”
I have no idea who has answered me, but their words are searing into me. Burning into my soul with an icy horror.
I look down at Jade, who is still out cold in my arms. Was I too late?
Silas is swearing. A long list of impressive cuss words and shocking phrases. He is glaring up at the sky.
“Fucking fey!” he finishes with.
His attention snaps down to Jade, and reflexively I pull my unconscious boyfriend to my chest. As if I can protect him.
Silas growls. “Jade was a distraction all along.”
Chapter twenty-eight
Jade
What is happening? I think I’m lying on my back in a bed, it certainly feels like it. But I swear there is sunlight on my face. I can almost see it through my eyelids. And I don’t know how I can tell, but this doesn’t feel like my bed in the dungeon.
Tentatively, I open my eyes. The first thing I see is Flyn. He is sitting on a chair next to the bed, but he has slumped forward and his head is resting on the mattress. He is also snoring softly.
Has he really fallen asleep after sitting by my bedside? I swallow and force my gaze away from Flyn to check out my surroundings.
Absolutely enormous windows greet me. Proudly displaying a pale blue sky and an expanse of formal gardens. The sheer beauty of it is going to bring me to tears.
I tear my gaze away to look around some more because I need to know where I am. I have to try to figure out what the hell is going on.
This room is large. Old-fashioned white and gold flock wallpaper line the walls. There is a marble fireplace, and an extremely tall ceiling with pretty coving.
I appear to be in a very fancy bedroom, in a very nice four poster bed.
My guess is I’ve been taken out of the dungeon and placed in one of the bedchambers upstairs.
But why?
