“Angel?”
Ivan.
“Hey, kiddo,” I breathed, the fight draining from my voice as I heard him stop by my door. “You okay?”
“No,” he whispered, the word small and broken, but I caught it.
“Safe?” I asked. Jude would want Ivan safe.
“He is safe with me,” Xavier answered, his power still pressing, a constant, grating pressure. It didn’t make me want to kneel anymore. It made my muscles writhe, threatening to force the new, monstrous thing in my veins to the surface.
“Stop,” Ivan grumbled, his voice sharp with an authority that surprised me. “You’re not helping.”
The oppressive flow of energy vanished. I could breathe again.
A heavy silence stretched through the hall.
“Maybe you should wait at the other end of the hall?” Ivan added, his voice small but firm.
“Not a chance, kitten,” Xavier replied.
“He won’t hurt me.”
“You don’t know that.”
The terrible truth was, neither did I. The beast that had shredded this cell was still coiled just beneath my skin, a triggerI didn’t know how to control. But there was concrete and metal between us. And while the scarred walls proved I’d tried with everything I had to get out, I’d ultimately failed. The cage had held.
The real failure was far greater. “I’m sorry I couldn’t save him,” I said, the words catching in my throat.
Ivan didn’t answer. For a long minute, there was only the sound of my strained breathing. Then, I felt the faint pressure of Ivan’s hand pressed against the wall where I leaned, our connection tightening.
Not gone.
The words whispered through my mind, a ghost of comfort in the crushing dark. Ivan’s voice in my head, linked through that delicate weave his brother had stitched to unmake himself and save us all.
I had a thousand questions, but a tiny candle of hope burned in my gut. A tickle of warmth snaked down my spine, thick with a liquid grace.
Nox. The little dragon’s energy coiled around my core as if he could help solidify the sensation of Jude’s touch.
“The SED and military are awaiting my answer,” Xavier said, voice tired, but pragmatic. “Your team’s fate relies on your sanity.”
“What? That’s not fair. I take the blame for everything.”
“Blame is hardly the issue here,” Xavier growled.
“When you changed,” Wade’s voice cut in from the adjacent cell, low and strained with a fear I’d never heard in him before, “you became something else.”
“And so did we,” Ivan whispered.
47
ANGEL
Ivan’s words haunted me,but Xavier quieted him, a silent admission that other, less friendly ears were listening. Why had Xavier let him in at all?
I surged to my feet and pressed my hand flat on the cold metal of the door. “Ivan.” It was a raw sound, borne of Jude’s lingering desire to protect his little brother at all costs. Our eyes met through the reinforced window, and in them was a silent plea.Stay safe and remain in control.
Why? Because if I didn’t, none of us were going home.
