“Prince Idris!”
“Sire!”
He closed his eyes, resting his head on the table as he willed everything to disappear.
This has to be a nightmare. There is no reason for this to happen. We have come this close, for what?
No matter how hard he tried, the throbbing that refused to go away told him he was living in reality. He jerked his head, wincing from his failure to free his hair from Kaela’s grip.
The crushing weight continued to pin him against the table. Each passing moment made it harder to breathe. He tried to lift himself from the table, only to fail.
“Get me free!”
Footsteps surrounded him, and the pressure eased.
The heavy body slowly dropped, leaving a trail of their wet and sticky blood on his back as they fell, pinning his tail to the ground.
Idris shoved himself off the table, growling as he flung around to see who had him pinned. He yanked his tail hard, freeing it from underneath the toppled body.
Collapsed on the floor, unconscious in a bloody heap, was a familiar caped figure.
His anger froze as an icy chill coursed through him.
No. No. No. No.
He dropped to his knees, not caring about the crimson puddle pooling underneath him as he reached for the body’s shoulder, flipping him over.
Aydin laid unresponsive, his eyes closed. Idris placed a shaky hand in front of his parted mouth, barely able to register a breath.
Erlyn knelt across from him, peeling back Aydin’s hood. “He saved you . . .”
Idris shot a glance at him. “Page for Qatszo! I need him here. Now!”
He returned his focus to the male who he had gotten to know over the past week, laying him gently onto his back. Idris unclasped his cloak and ran his hand along the fainted male, searching for any hidden injuries. His fingers skimmed over something wet, covering them in thick red. Scanning for its source, he found a similar deep cut across his side.
“How much longer?” Frantically, he returned to Aydin’s chest wound, and pulled the fabric from around the wound, hissing from the discovery of the depth of the blade.
“It’ll be some time—”
“Then be useful and put pressure on his side,” he ordered Erlyn, wincing from the harshness in his voice. Now wasn’t the time. Aydin’s life was in danger, and he was going to do his best to stabilize him.
“You aren’t going to die on me. I command it!” Gripping the fabric hard, he ripped open Aydin’s bodysuit, baring the space around the beamblade. Idris lowered his face to the wound, licking the sweet crimson blood from his chest. He needed to seal it as much as possible with his saliva before he made any attempts to remove the beamblade from him.
Idris refused to give up. He owed Aydin his life.
Only the beamblade remained. Sighing, he sat up and wiped his mouth off with his shoulder scarf. He needed scales and fast in order to be successful.
The larger scales on his tail were the only ones reachable and wouldn’t be an issue if he removed them.They would take longer for him to regrow than the others on his body. It would leave any scaleless spots on his bodyvulnerable to severe damage ifstruck—but itwas the risk he will take in orderto save Aydin’s life.
Curling the end of his tail to his mouth, he bit into it, ignoring the self-inflicted pain. What he felt couldn’t be a fraction of what Aydin must have felt from the fight. One by one, he tore off the small collection of scales needed to heal both of Aydin’s wounds.
“Raizxl, I’m going to need you to slowly pull the beamblade from his chest to prevent the least amount of damage. My goal is to seal it as fast as possible by using my saliva as the binding agent for my scales.”
“But Sire, he’s a human—”
“I don’t care!” He glared at the emerald male. “Help me or find someone who will.”
Raizxl rushed over and sat across from Erlyn, carefully gripping the weapon sticking out of Aydin’s chest. His face scrunched grimly, as he glanced between Aydin’s paling body and the prince.
