Feeling guilty was my new normal. Even with the rulers and Mindy telling me I had done nothing wrong and that Aiden needed to know what was happening. I still felt like I should’ve eased him into it. Seeing Derek had been the tipping point.
It was now two weeks later and Aiden was still asleep. Derek kept waking up a little every day, some days he would be awake for an hour, and some for three to four hours. He was healing and according to Mindy, itseemed he needed to sleep as much as possible, so I would simply enjoy the times he was awake.
Because I couldn’t leave their side, I’d begun working on my report about their world. I’d also spoken to Juno, Nix, and Mint a few times, telling them Derek needed me so we couldn’t meet up. It felt wrong lying to my friends, but my loyalty was with my mates, and they deserved privacy during their healing.
Mindy came into the room, her smile bright as always. “I come bearing lunch,” she announced, handing me my plate.
“Thank you.” I took the plate and figured I might as well tell her the latest news. “Aiden woke up but only for three seconds at most.” I’d seen his eyes flutter open, then a brief smile form on his face, and that had been it.
She gasped and hurried over to him, scanning his body with her magic, the green light pouring out of her palms as she held her hand over his heart.
“His core has healed enough so I would say it’s at ten percent now. You might start feeling the heightened emotions soon,” she warned me.
I hadn’t felt emotional yet with my unfinished bond with Aiden, and they—meaning the medical staff—thought it was because of his broken core. I hoped he would be healed more than just ten percent before I was hit with the burden of having my emotions be an uncontrolled mess, especially since I couldn’t mate with Aiden until he’d gotten his magic, and considering how close Derek had been to dying from getting his, and hiscore wasn’t as broken as Aiden’s was…. Yeah, I just had to deal with a lot more tears and maybe some anxiety.
“I’m just glad he’s improving,” I answered calmly.
“Did you speak with him?”
I shook my head. “I didn’t even manage to say his name before he fell asleep again. Last time I’d tried to explain as much as possible, he lasted until I showed him Derek.” I still felt guilty over that.
She waved me off. “Rather get it out of the way and have him aware so when he wakes up again, he knows the basics. Did he seem scared or confused?”
“No, he smiled when he saw me, then fell asleep.”
She patted my arm kindly. “See, you did the right thing telling him as much as possible last time. His smile has to mean he was happy seeing you.”
I let out a relieved sigh. “I have to admit, I felt guilty over saying too much and overwhelming him back into a coma, but because I was too busy thinking of what to say, I didn’t get the chance to even say hi to him.”
She snorted, then quickly slammed her mouth shut. “I apologize for that.” I laughed and she joined me.
My slate chimed and I internally cursed Juno. His name was blinking on the small screen and I knew he was done waiting for me. I answered and chose not to show myself, meaning he could only hear my voice.
He was projected from my slate and frowned at not seeing me. “What the hell, Nolen?”
“Derek is asleep next to me,” I explained, not going further into it.
“Yeah, my dad said Derek was still in his coma. Is he doing okay?”
I’d ended up telling them about Derek’s broken core, mostly because Derek had told me to. We had to tell them something, so giving them a bit of the truth seemed wise. They couldn’t understand why they couldn’t visit our room though, but until Aiden was well enough for us to leave the room for short amounts of time, they would stay away.
“He wakes up a little bit every day, but he’s still healing. As soon as he can leave the room, we’ll see you and Remi.”
“Promise?” His voice showed just how worried he was about my Derek. If only I could tell him about Aiden, too.
“I promise,” I said, meaning it.
We hung up and I slumped back into the bed, glancing to both sides to look at my mates. They were so perfect. I could only hope our future would be perfect, too. They deserved that.
Sleep claimed me soon after, and in my dreams, I lay on a grassy field, the sun shining down on me, warming my body, and next to me Derek and Aiden lay, all of us happy and awake. Happiness bloomed inside of me, warming me from the inside out. But a beeping sound had me crashing back to reality.
Mindy was scurrying around our bed with two others, each moving too fast for this to be a simple check-up.
“What’s wrong?” I croaked, sitting up and eyeing the room.
Mindy seemed focused on the machine next to us, but she still answered, “Aiden and Derek’s hearts stopped beating for two seconds. Both of them at the same time.”
I sucked in a startled breath. My dream… had they…No…
