“What’s going on?” a voice demanded.
She spun around, pushed past Thiorr.
Even in the inky night, she could clearly seehim, his pretty hair slicked down against his skull, the shock on his beautiful face—
“Aerén!” She threw herself at him, but her feet slipped on the wet grass and she slid.
He grabbed her before she face-planted, holding her against him with hands like steel bands.
“You’re here, you’re back,” he whispered, one palm cupping her cheek.
Leya touched his face, tears and the drizzle blurring her sight. “I saw you fall. You were struck, and you fell. An arrow in your chest—”
She yanked his shirt apart, buttons popping, but only hard muscles, covered with miles of smooth skin, met her eyes, no wounds.
She lifted her confused stare to his churning silver gaze. “But I saw you get hit…”
He brushed back her dripping hair with a shaky hand. “You’re up.”
“Why is everyone saying that?” She groaned, pressing her face into his chest, relieved he wasn’t hurt. “I know I was asleep, but the storm woke me. The horrible thunder and the searing lightning, and-and I saw you up in the sky…like when you took me out to sea the other day, but then you were shot with those arrows…”
God, everything was so confusing, so mixed up. It had been raining, with no lightning or thunder… She rubbed her brow, but the fog remained. “I don’t understand.”
* * *
All Aerén could do was breathe, breathe her in, the petrichor from the rain clinging to her, concealing the floral scent he loved. Reverentially, he palmed her face and pressed his mouth to hers. She sighed and sank into his kiss. But he didn’t deepen it.
“I’m okay,” he rasped, because talking was doing funny things to his voice, like making him choke on the emotions overwhelming him. “Don’t worry about your memories, they’ll return.”
She wrapped her arms tighter around him, her cheek pressed against his chest.
Aerén just held her, trying to get himself to believe this wasn’t a dream his lightning-struck mind procured while taking comfort in having her in his arms again. She might have gotten the situation mixed up, but she’d sensed him—sensed what she thought was him in danger while locked deep in her healing sleep.
Aerén would have sunk to his knees in gratitude if it wouldn’t terrify his already confused mate, so damn grateful, to whichever Fate watched over her, that she remembered him.
Another spasm of electricity triggered through him. Inhaling harshly, he ignored it, keeping his psychic shields bolted tight, especially sincehe’dlet the lightning consume him, when he’d needed to get out of his mind for a while.
“C’mon,me’morae, let’s get you out of here.”
She shivered and lifted her head, eyes dark and troubled. “But I s-saw you fall in the ocean.” Her teeth clattered. “You were like a silver flame falling.”
Aerén let a bit of his warmth flow into her to stop her shivering, not daring for more in his present state.
While she could handle his powers, as she’d proven, he didn’t dare risk her. “The storm’s taking its toil over the lands where the staff have their homes, causing a mudslide. Lives were at stake. I had to move the storm into the ocean. Yes, I did get hit by lightning, but Iamlightning, Leya. I just absorbed its energy. It’s why I lit up…” He shook his head. “I admit, my mind was a mess. The pain and fear became too much, and with all the electrical current running rampant in me, I dove into the ocean. Fighting the riptides helped ease some of it.”
She blinked. “Because of your staff’s situation?”
Because ofyou, my heart.
He shook his head. “I could aid them with that. It’s other things. Later, I’ll explain. Come, I must get you out of here. You need a hot shower to ease the chill I feel in you.”
He dematerialized them to the castle and reformed them in the back foyer—
“Leya?” Hana stumbled a step, then she barreled down the stairs, eyes wide in her pale face. “You’re awake. Oh God, you’re awake!” She threw her arms around Leya and hugged her, tears brimming.
“Hana, you’re acting like everyone here!” Leya exhaled a massive sigh, drawing back. “I’m wetting you. The storm got me up, is all. It’s not like I was in a coma, like years ago when I fell off my bicycle and hit my head. And it was for only two days, then, anyway…” she trailed off. Her gaze snapped from her sister to him. “Wait. Was I in a coma?”
Aerén nodded. He could almost feel her breath catch. “You were in a healing sleep for a while.”
