A few seconds later, I was flying through roots and dirt, wrapped around a Shifter Lord.
Chapter
Twenty-One
CAELAN
Ben appeared first, followed by Evie, both wrapped around each other.
Both nude.
I had to close my eyes for a long moment and get myself together. This was the second time in less than a week that the woman I loved more than life ended up trapped with one of my shifters.
In Ben’s case, former shifter.
It wasn’t her fault. Evie’s nature was something I had to work with and not against. But seeing the way she and Ben were entangled…it took everything I had not to swipe his pretty face with a fistful of claws.
Both of their eyes were closed, their heads lolling against each other. And even though they were tangled together, neither was conscious. They looked as if their last act was to make sure neither was lost in the dark as they sought the light.
Evie’s vines went limp. I swore and reached for Ben, jerking him out of the ground, Evie still holding on. I tried to separate them, but neither would let go, almost as if they were glued together.
Gritting my teeth, I rolled Ben onto his back, forcing Evie right on top, and hit her in the middle of her back twice.
Just enough for her lungs to restart. She coughed once, twice, three times, and gagged, expelling an alarming amount of dirt.
Evie probably wouldn’t have died, not from inhaling dirt. Her nature, after all, was inherently tied to the earth. But seeing her prone, unconscious body stirred something dark and dangerous inside me.
Her eyes dragged open, unfocused and filled with dirt. She blinked away the worst of it, realized who she was on top of, gasped, gagged again, and threw herself to the side, her back thumping to the ground.
“Caelan?” she croaked, not seeing me yet.
I crouched beside her. “I’m right here.”
Her lips pulled back from her teeth in a grimace before dirty tears slid from her eyes. “Is he okay?”
In answer, I flipped Ben over none too gently and whacked him on the back, far more forcefully than I did Evie.
But nothing happened.
I shook his shoulder. “Ben?”
Evie scooted closer to him. She lay a hand on his shoulder. Seeing her touch him made my jaw tighten, but I kept my burning jealousy inside. “Ben?”
No movement.
Evie sat up abruptly. “Roll him over.”
I didn’t ask why, simply did as she asked.
She shook him again. “Ben!”
No response once more. She called her magic to her fingers and pressed her hand against his chest. Magic the color of watermelon tourmaline rose to the surface and covered his body from head to toe. As I watched, Evie snaked a vine into Ben’s body.
The Lord jerked, his back bowed.
“Turn him to the side,” Evie commanded.
I tilted Ben seconds before a torrent of dirt and gravel poured from his mouth.
