“I can’t watch her slowly suffer like this. If you can do it quickly then we can heal her afterward.”
At this point, I don’t know which is the lesser evil. I just know that the sooner this is over with the better.
Gods, I hope I’m right.
Mar lowers to her knees before us. Serena nods her head as much as she can.
“I’ve got you,” I tell her, shifting us onto our knees and propping her up against me. I hold her arms out in front of her so as to not burn her legs. Mar hovers her hands above the two cuffs. They turn white within seconds. Serena writhes, slamming against my chest, but I don’t so much as teeter behind her.
I’ve got you.
Her heart-rending screams as the white metal begins to drip from her wrists along with her skin, are the stuff of nightmares.
I’m going to fucking kill Kylian for this.
Jace is full-out crying at this point, tears of anger and frustrationstreaking his cheeks as he grits his teeth and sends a cool, soothing breeze to wrap around her ruined wrists.
The shackles are all but molten pools mixed with her blood on the sand as she goes lax against me.
“Lay her down. Now,” Mar says, immediately shifting into healing mode.
Serena’s face is leeched of color. Mar makes fast work of replacing skin that a second ago was not there, until the whites of her bones are no longer visible. I watch in horrified awe as the skin regrows, sealing in the leaking veins and tendons. The skin looks new, but her forearms and the tops of her hands are bad—bubbled and red.
“Jace,” Mar signals. He sends another wave of air to kiss her extremities.
Serena’s head lolls against my thigh as she dances on the edge of consciousness. Smoothing her hair off her clammy forehead, I send out my energy to help Mar heal her. The blue in her blood makes her healing abilities ten times what I can do. But there’s no way I can sit here doing nothing.
“I need a second,” Mar breaks off, gasping for air.
“Mar?” Dover kneels down beside her a second before she falls back into the sand, nose leaking blue.
25
SERENA
Afamiliar thrum beneath my skin tickles me awake. The sweet sensation of pinpricks along my legs and the back of my neck. I know that feeling.
My magic.
My eyes fly open to a tangle of dark hair and a perfect profile seated beside me.
“Kai?”
His head whips toward me. “Serena?”
“You’re awake,” I breathe in relief.
As I move to sit up, my hands come into view and the flood of memories whooshes back in.
Burning flesh. Horrible, searing pain. The feeling of fire kissing bare bone. I shiver, trying to blink away the image of my skin melting off. The smell of it.
My hands are wrapped in pink-tinged cloth, but the flesh around my forearms is badly singed.
“Just when I thought you couldn’t get any crazier. What were you thinkingburningthe chains off?”
“What were you thinking almost dying on me?”
He helps me sit up and I throw my arms around him, ignoring theburns.
