Dash appeared seemingly out of nowhere and caught her before she hit the floor. The tiara slipped off her head and rolled on the floor like a coin before coming to a stop. Aurelia quickly scooped it up and placed it back in its box.
Harley lay limp in Dash’s arms. He stared down at her with a look of distress and a hint of something I couldn’t interpret.
“What’s wrong with her?” I asked, alarm spiking through my already strung-out body.
Aurelia rushed forward, going into boss mode as her brows pulled together and she laid a palm on Harley’s forehead. “She might have burned through too much magic too fast.”
“Tate,” Gage croaked in front of me, and in an instant Harley was all but forgotten. He wrapped the sheet around his waist as I helped him struggle to his feet.
“Are you okay? Are you hurt? Do you need a healer?” I asked as I ran my gaze over him from top to bottom and back up again, checking every nick and cut to make sure they weren’t deep.
“Tate, stop. I’m okay,” Gage said as he grabbed my face between his hands. There was a hint of panic in his eyes I hadn’t noticed before. “Apollyon knows you two have found each other, and he’s coming.”
I froze at his warning, but Aurelia was spurred into action. She made eye contact with Theo. “Lock down the school. No one in and no one out.”
Theo immediately took off, already pulling his phone from his pocket as he swiftly exited the room. I could hear him barking orders as he ran down the hall.
“Dash,” Aurelia said, looking at him. “Get Harley to the healing center.”
He nodded and his wings snapped from his back. As he looked down at Harley’s still body in his arms, I was finally able to interpret his gaze.
Worry.He was worried about Harley, which meant he’d accepted her as one of us.
Harley looked lifeless and weak in his arms, her skin pale.
“I’m going with you,” I told him. My own wings sprang from between my shoulder blades.
“We’ll meet you there,” Gage told me, and Drea bolted across the room, opening the balcony doors for us.
Dash and I were both wearing anklets so that we wouldn’t be seen while flying.
Dash stepped out onto the balcony and kicked off the ground, taking flight with Harley unconscious in his arms. I jumped out into the air after him and we flew at record speeds for the healing center.
CHAPTERTWELVE
“Wake up,” I whimpered, looking over at Harley as I flew next to Dash and over the New York City traffic. “You’re my sister. You have to pull through,” I yelled at her, hoping she could somehow hear me.
A light rain started to fall, droplets rolling down Harley’s face in such a way that it looked like she was crying. Seeing her like this, so helpless and unable to defend herself, it made my heart ache. Life hadn’t been kind to my sister. She wore a mask of pain and anger. But underneath I think she just wanted to be loved.
I landed in front of the healing center just as she started to convulse in Dash’s arms.
Panic flooded my system at the rapid decline in her condition, and my knees went weak. I flung the healing center doors open for Dash. The head healer met us in the hallway, her gaze immediately focusing on the bracelet around Harley’s wrist.
“She’s a Shade?” The healer looked surprised.
“She’s one of us. My sister,” I told her with barely contained emotions.
“Aurelia’s orders are that you heal her,” Dash said with a growl.
That got her moving. She stepped forward, pulling Harley from Dash’s arms just as her seizing stopped, and hustled inside as Dash and I followed her.
“Call my team into OR one!” she snapped to Rose, who stood at the front desk with a phone in hand. The healer ran to the empty bed that was waiting with an accompanying nurse and deposited Harley on it.
The moment Harley hit the bed, she started shaking again. I could hear her teeth clamping together from ten feet away.
“What happened?” the healer asked. “The more I know, the better I can help her.”
I swallowed hard, stumbling forward. “She used the Diadem of Avalon—with permission,” I added.
