“Dreisin!” he shouted, pounding heavily on the door. He rattled the knob and when it didn’t open, I thought he might yank the door right off the hinges.
I had never seen this side of him before. This was bad. This was very, very bad.
The door flew open just as I arrived behind Dey. Sin stood there, freshly showered and pulling on his long black tunic. He barked something in Rivellan at Dey, and to my horror, Dey responded by punching him squarely in the face.
Sin went down hard, and Dey stalked into the room.
“Dey!” I screeched. “What the hell are you doing?” I lunged forward, but he kicked the door shut behind him, and I heard the loud thunk of a lock slamming into place.
Oh God. They were going to kill each other, and I couldn’t do a thing to stop it.
I pressed an ear to the door as Sin and Dey shouted at each other in Rivellan. All I could hear after that was the sound of fists contacting flesh, and I winced as a loud crash thundered inside the room.
I started banging on the door frantically, screaming, “Dey! Sin! Stop this!” A pained cry rang out from the room, and I was pretty sure it was Dey that time.
I kicked at the door, but it barely moved under my feeble attempt. A feeling of guilt and worthlessness swept over me and my knees buckled. As my throat started to seize up onme, I collapsed hard onto the stone floor. The impact barely registered, though, as I struggled to take in even a single breath. Panic crushed my lungs in a vice grip I was helpless to break through. I tried to cry out again, to beg them to stop, but the words wouldn’t come.
I never should have told Dey about the kiss. Hell, I never should have kissed Sin to begin with. They were hurting each other, and it was all my fault.
My fault. My fault. My fault.
The words ricocheted through my brain, growing louder and louder, until they were screaming inside my skull.
“Please,” I croaked out weakly. My entire body strained as my lungs spasmed with sharp inhales, unable to pull the oxygen any further than my lips. “I’m begging you,” I wheezed. “Please stop fighting.”
The noises inside the room ceased as a familiar cloud of black started to roll over my vision. Someone yanked the door open, and I fell backward, my head slamming into the floor.
I barely recognized the two males hovering above me. A nasty gash over Sin’s now swollen left eye dripped blood down the side of his face, and his jaw looked awkwardly out of place. Shredded strips of Dey’s tunic were all that remained, and a dagger-sized chunk of wood stuck out of his chest.
Both males dropped to the floor at my side, and Sin grabbed me first, hauling my slack body into his lap. Dey reached for my arms to pull me over to him, but Sin curbed the action with a harsh word in Rivellan.
“What is wrong, Princess?” Dey asked, yanking the wooden shard from his chest.
“She’s having a damn panic attack,” Sin stated as if it was painfully obvious. “She doesn’t have her medication.”
I briefly wondered how he even knew about my pills, but then Dey’s hands cupped my face, and my entire field of vision was filled with him.
“Let me help you,” he pleaded. “Just like last time. I can fix you.”
“She’s not broken,” Sin argued. “She just needs to work through it.”
“No, she needs me to help her,” Dey shot back.
“Keep your grubby powers out of her brain!” Sin shouted, his outrage echoing loudly through the hall. “She doesn’t need you messing with her head.”
“And she does need you?” The thinly-veiled threat underneath his words hung in the air as I struggled to regain control of my breathing.
Sin’s response was in their language, and whatever he said caused Dey to press pause on his anger. Eventually, he bit out a single Rivellan word.
The floor dropped away as I was lifted up and cradled against Sin’s chest. Instinctively, I wrapped my arms around his neck. He still smelled like the ocean, but underneath it was the coppery tang of fresh blood. Tilting my face to look at him, I watched as the gash over his eye sealed itself up, the swelling visibly dissipating.
Guilt was plastered across his face as he whispered, “Just breathe, Fea Remia. Just focus on your breath. In and out. You can do it.”
I closed my eyes, trying to do as he said, but I couldn’t force the air down.
My body jostled in his arms slightly as we ascended a flight of stairs. More than one by the feel of it.
A gentle breeze hit my face, and my eyes shot open. We were outside, on top of one of the turrets, and the sky was on fire with clouds blazing orange, red, and purple. I took in a sharp inhaleat the beautiful sunset, and to my shock, the oxygen filled my lungs.
