Something loosens in my chest. Stellan saved me by loving me. But Skye is offering something different. He's offering to change the world's memory of what I am.
"Thank you," I say.
He leans over and presses a kiss to my temple, lingering there for a breath before pulling back. "Get some rest. Both of you."
I run my hands over Stellan's healed wound again and again, needing to feel that the skin is whole, that the blood has stopped, that he's here and alive and not bleeding out in my arms. "I almost lost you," I whisper.
"You didn't." He catches my hands and stills them. "You saved me."
"I was so scared. When I saw you fall, I thought I was going to watch you die, and I couldn't, I can't—" He pulls me close, and I bury my face in his neck, breathing in the smoke and heat of him. His arms wrap around me tight, his fire warming the cold places my terror has left behind.
"I'm not going anywhere," he says against my hair. "I'm right here, demon. I'm not leaving you."
"Promise me you won't do that again. Promise me you won't leave me."
"I promise." His hands stroke down my back. "I promise, Jade. I'm yours. I'm not going anywhere." I hold him tighter and let myself believe it. His heartbeat is steady against my chest, his fire warming me from the inside out, and I close my eyes and let the sound of it ground me.
Somewhere in the cave behind us, Ambrose's voice cuts through the quiet. "We have a problem."
I lift my head from Stellan's neck. Ambrose stands near the cave entrance, something glowing green between his hands, a contract pulsing with urgent light. Skye moves toward him immediately, asking what kind of problem, and Ambrose's face goes pale in the contract's glow.
"Phoenix Sanctuary. They're under attack."
6
Stellan
Iwakeslowly,withJade wrapped around me, his demon form still partially manifested, horns curving back from his forehead and his tail coiled around my thigh like he's afraid I'll disappear if he lets go.
My side aches where the wound was. I was dying. I knew I was dying, the darkness rushing in at the edges of my vision until there was almost nothing left. Then Jade's essence poured into me, and a sensation unlike anything I've experienced took over. He transformed everything he'd consumed in that fight and pushed it into me until my body remembered how to healitself. I felt him inside me, his hunger becoming the very thing that dragged me back from the edge.
Jade stirs against me, and then his eyes snap open. Purple irises find mine, his hands already moving across the healed skin. "How do you feel?"
"Like I got stabbed." I manage a small smile. "And then very thoroughly un-stabbed."
A shaky laugh falls from his lips before he presses his forehead to mine, and the cracks in whatever he's been holding together start showing now that I'm awake. I reach up and trace the curve of one horn beneath my fingertips. Jade goes still, his breath catching.
"You killed for me," I say quietly.
He flinches. "I had to—"
"I know. I'm not upset. I've just never had someone do that for me." I pull him down and press my mouth to his. The kiss is soft, his lips warm against mine, his body still trembling. I hold him close and let him feel that I'm here.
When we untangle ourselves enough to sit up, Skye checks me through the bond. "The healing is complete," he says. "Jade's essence integrated perfectly with yours."
"Your life signature has changed," Harlow adds, drifting close. "More resilient."
Rumi is across the cave packing supplies, but he pauses long enough to glance over his shoulder. "Which means you're harder to kill." I look down at the pink new skin where the wound was.
Ambrose has been quiet through all of this, checking his contract threads with the focused energy of someone who's already thinking three steps ahead. He shoulders his pack, the movement pulling everyone's attention. "We need to move. The attack means they know exactly where we are."
Nobody argues, but nobody rushes to stand either. Skye reaches out and puts a hand on my shoulder, and the othersdrift closer without discussion, all six of us connecting through touch and bond. The relief at not losing me floods through hard enough to tighten my throat.
We travel slower than usual. Every step sends a dull ache through my side, and by midday I'm leaning on whoever walks closest. Jade refuses to be more than arm's length away, his tail finding excuses to wrap around my wrist, my ankle, my waist. Every time I stumble he's there before I can fall.
Finding somewhere to rest, Rumi drops down beside me while Jade goes to refill water. His wing extends behind my back, blocking the wind, and for a few minutes neither of us says anything.
"I froze," he says eventually. "When you went down. Ambrose had to shove me before I started fighting again."
