34
ELODIE
I’m broken.
I’m certain of it.
Darkness surrounds me, my vision a shattered sense, while a breeze ghosts over my skin and loud chatter fills the air. There’s confusion, bewilderment, and panic, but the thing that stands out most is the lack of fear and carnage.
Something’s different.
It’s not the damp space in the sub basement of Institute One that was drenched in silence apart from the strained breaths of my mother and me.
My mom.
I can’t move, frozen in a disoriented state, and it feels like my insides are clawing at myself, desperate to release the restrictions confining me.
“She’s over here!”
A familiar voice cuts through the distress swirling inside my mind, zapping through me as I slowly regain the rest of my senses, but I still can’t pry my eyes open or make my damn tongue work.
Soft hands press against my cheeks and my chest aches from the touch, but it’s not the familiar vice of heartache, it’s relief.
The echo of a hum rattles in my mind, but I’m certain it doesn’t part my lips; it simply vibrates in my throat.
“Petal? It’s okay. I’m here. I’m right here. You’re going to be okay.”
I’ve lost count of the number of times Rion has hummed those sweet words to me. Enough to last a lifetime, but the truth is, he’s meant it.
Every. Single. Time.
His words have a way of embracing me just as strongly as his arms.
He’s my rock, my pillar, my sanctuary.
I need to see him.
I need to see all of them.
Thorne and Kael too.
Thorne is… God, he’s the layered shadow fae intent on ripping me apart, just so he can piece me back together again. It’s intoxicating, just like him, and I want more. I want forever.
Kael is something else entirely. The lies, the secrets, the pain, and the heartache… I would take it all over again to see those deep-green eyes swallow me whole like they do every time.
“Check her pulse,” Ocean demands, and Rion scoffs.
“I can fucking hear it, little witch, don’t worry. My Petal just needs a second.”
“We don’t have a second,” Thorne murmurs, low and gravelly, and my heart lurches, panic snapping down my spine like a whip. With it, my eyes ping open.
The blistering light offers nothing more than a backdrop, framing three faces that feel like home.
Thorne. Rion. Kael.
From left to right, each staring at me with wide eyes and soft smiles as relief floods the air around us.
My eyelids shutter and Ocean has appeared behind my men when I force them back open, completing my tight-knit group. But the second I think about it, my thoughts are dragged toward two more people who aren’t in my view.
