“You can just say I’m yours,” Severi murmurs, passing out once more.
I stroke his cheek. “And I’ve been yours for a while too.” Even if I never wanted to admit it.
Chapter
Five
Severi, the Vian Prince, my once enemy, is still as he lies in bed. The coating of blood and grime is gone, leaving minor cuts that will heal and massive ones on his chest that are covered by white sheets and likely won’t heal but scar. His Vian healing is kicking in, slowly fixing him, but he still hasn’t woken. I look at my hand, the tulip marking of the academy like a stain against my pale skin, reminding me of everything I lost in Starlight. I’ve lost so much…and yet I still have them.
Severi is my mate, and he never once hurt me, but I don’t know if he is going to wake up as Severi or as the king. The days have passed quickly as I’ve sat at his bedside, praying to the Gods I don’t believe help us anymore, to wake him up. I couldn’t exactly take him to a healer, and none of us knew anybody that would heal a Vian prince, not even Hollis. Yet Hollis stayed. He put Severi’s broken arm back into place and fixed his leg into a cast. After he was done, he hunted in the forest for herbs to make painkillers and keep him comfortable.
I didn’t speak to Hollis the entire time, not even as I noted how familiar he was with Severi. They are friends…or know each other. I’m thankful Rhodes didn’t stay after he dropped us off near the Welsh border. Finnegan decided to drive us backhere even though it’s risky to have Hollis in case he’s seen, but we need people we trust to watch Severi when we leave. I’m choosing to trust Hollis because he has trusted us with someone important enough to him that I’m left with little choice. Severi has weeks of recovery ahead of him, and we have to do what the witch warned.
The house is packed, and this is the only room that is silent, and I’m not hiding in here, but I do like to hear my own thoughts once in a while. The cabin has only got four small rooms, and there’s quite a lot of us. Hollis is sleeping on the sofa. Feyre and her dad are sharing. Finn, Onyx, Alek and I have taken the last room, but I prefer to sleep right here, in a chair at Severi’s bedside. Franklin is on a pull-out bed in the lounge with Hollis. It’s better I don’t look at him too long at the moment, or I might explode with the shock of the truth. I can’t process it right now. I don’t know how I ever will.
“It’s really weird to be sitting on your bed, waiting for you to wake up,” I mutter to Severi, my hand inches from his. I could just reach out and touch him, but I don’t. His dark hair is shorter than I’ve ever seen it, and he has a five o’clock shadow. I kind of like it on him. It’s so strange to see him still and not smirking at me. His tanned skin is covered in a sheen of sweat as he fights to live. My Nexus was worried when we first brought him back, but she’s calm now, and that tells me enough to know Severi’s going to wake up from this. He needs time. While Hollis was healing him, he theorised that Severi had been beaten and tortured by his father for answers, likely about me. I’m just glad we got him out before he was executed.
I pull Finnegan’s hoodie tighter around me and slide my hands into the pockets. My Nexus feels happy for a moment and she speaks to me. “He comes back.”Severi.My lips tilt up in a smile as his eyes flicker and then open.
He immediately tries to sit up, and I rush forward, putting my hand on his chest and pushing him down. “It’s me. What’s my name?”
Tulip or Gwenieve. I need to know who I’m speaking to.
“Tulip, my beautiful nurse and saviour.” Severi looks directly at me with his dark brown eyes. This close I can see gold specks that dance in the brown. “Who knew that the person you said you hated would have you running to save them?
“Don’t be smug about it,” I mutter, my shoulders relaxing.
“I’ll always be smug that you came for me. It’s a sign that you like me.” He tries to smile, but he winces. “Fuck, they did a number on me.”
“Who?” I demand. “I’ll find them?—”
He sighs. “Grunts for my father. They specialise in getting information out of people, and they tried hard to get me to say a single word about you. They wanted to know why I helped you. Where you had gone next. Any plans.” His eyes fix on mine. “I said nothing.”
“Why?” I question. I need to hear it.
“Because I’m mad about your psychotic, beautiful self. That’s why I keep ending up in these situations.” He groans.
I sit back; my heart racing too loudly. He must hear it. “You get into these situations because you’re trouble.”
“Takes one to know one, darling.” Again, he locks eyes with me, and I find it hard to turn away. Severi reaches for me, and he winces, falling back, clutching his stomach. For a moment, just a moment, I swear I feel his pain, and it cuts through me. I climb to my feet and rush to the little table on the other side, pouring several drops of the potion into a glass of water and stirring it before bringing it back. He sits up enough to drink it. I watch until he’s drunk it all before I take the empty glass away.
“Thank you,” Severi says. “I don’t just mean for the drink.”
“I know.” I frown. “Are you in control right now?”
“He finds it harder to control me around you as you’ve gotten older, as your Nexus is more in control now, humming round the room like a sprite.” Severi touches my hand, just running his finger over my knuckles. “But do not trust me. We can never be together, Nexus, you know that. I want you more than I have ever let myself admit, but I cannot stop him.”
“No king gets to make us forbidden,” I whisper. “No prince either.”
Sadness echoes in his eyes. “I accepted this fate a long time ago. It’s a broken dream, you and I.”
“It’s not,” I vow. “I will kill him, and then you’re free.”
I lean down, but he stops me with his hand pushing against my chest, over my heart. “Don’t. He is coming, Gwen, and I’m nothing but a danger to you. Trap me in here and go.”
“I’m not giving up,” I promise as I back away.
“I know you’re not.” He sounds defeated, and I want Severi back. The real, cheeky and annoying male I know.
