I didn't know how many hours it had been.
How manydaysit had been.
I hadn't slept.
Darius had come in with water and refused to leave until I drank it a few times, but I didn't touch the food he brought with him.
I was too sick with guilt. Worry. Regret.
"It's ending," I called out, my voice rough with lack of sleep. "Open the door."
"Kat said she's going to come get you when she's ready," Merrily said quietly, into the speaker.
I rose to my feet slowly, lifting my gaze to the camera. The ice on my skin cracked with the movement, falling off in thick chunks that shattered as they hit the floor. "I have spentdaysfeeling her pain while she mentally begs me for help. Open the fucking doornowso I can be there for her while it ends."
Merrily sighed. "I'll drive you there."
"I'll do it."
The door swung open, and my oldest friend was on the other side in her thick sweater, with her arms around her middle. "You can't drive after multiple days without sleep."
I stepped past her, my movements slow and stiff. "How many days?"
"Almost exactly three." She kept pace with me as we went to the garage. "Is she okay?"
"No."
Neither of us were.
Merrily didn't say another word during the two-mile drive down Fae Row, and I sure as fuck didn't.
"Good luck," she murmured, as I stepped out of the car.
For the first time since I'd met Kat, I was terrified. Not just of losing her, but of what she thought about me.
Of whether this would cost me not just my mate, but her feelings for me.
Herlove.
I had never been loved before, and I had already lost that. Somehow, I would win it back. I had to. I couldn't fucking lose her.
I typed the code in, and opened the door.I listened for her while I made my way through the house, moving faster than I ever had while my magic was riding me so hard.
Fuck the magic.
Fuck the pain.
Kat needed me.
I found her in our bed, buried beneath the blankets she had been pulling from other rooms in the house over the last fewdays. I peeled them away from her one by one, until I found my trembling mate.
She was drenched with sweat, her arms over her head. Her body was bare and shaking uncontrollably. When I put a hand on her back lightly, she whimpered, arching into it a little.
The lump in my throat may as well have been a cube of fucking ice.
I undressed with one hand and climbed into bed with her carefully, pulling her into my arms. Her breath caught when she inhaled against my skin, and another soft whimper escaped her.
I closed my eyes, fighting the emotion that burned there.
