Someone cleared their throat, and I jerked back, forgetting we had an audience. My cheeks heated.
Gage shot an annoyed look over my shoulder, and then glanced down at himself. He furrowed his brow. “Why the bloody hell am I lying naked on a stone floor?”
His reaction was so true to Gage that it broke the ball of tension in my chest. I burst out laughing.
Gage flicked his gaze to me with anAre-you-high?look on his face. A quick glance around said no one else was amused, so my laughter died off.
“We’re about the same size,” Dash said. “I’m going to go grab you some pants.” He took off immediately. Even though he was wearing a t-shirt, Dash probably felt as naked as Gage without his hoodie and was anxious to throw on another to cover his face scar.
Jacob shook his head, the look on his face full of disbelief. “Man, you must have nine lives or something.”
Keeping a hand against his waist to keep the hoodie covering him, Gage shot Jacob a side-eye as he struggled to sit up, wincing as he did.
Marlow gasped and I turned to her. Her eyes were wide and filled with horror as she stared at Gage’s back.
I snuck a peek and had to swallow my own yelp of surprise. Two giant slashes ran parallel to his spine that hadn’t been there before. Angry and raised, they were both at least an inch thick and a foot long, right where his wings used to be. I reached my fingers toward the marks and then pulled my hand back. It looked like the wounds were still healing.
“Gage, what happened?” I asked, and then glanced at the swirling portal against the far wall. I’d been so entranced by Gage’s sudden appearance that I’d hardly given it a moment’s notice, but it was back in all its blue and white glowing glory.
Gage peered over his shoulder and then scrubbed a hand down his face, a haunted look passing over him. “I’ve been stripped of my powers.”
The room took in a collective gasp, but Gage just shrugged. “Whatever, it’s fine,” he said, but his jaw hardened, and his eyes took on their normal half-slitted scowl.
It wasn’t fine. I could see by the distraught look on his face that it was far from fine, but I also noticed the walls come up around him as he closed the issue off to discussion. I was just grateful he was alive, so I wasn’t going to push the subject.
Dash returned with a stack of clothes and wearing a new hoodie almost identical to the one he’d used to cover Gage.
“Thanks, bro,” Gage said, and grabbed the clothes. He went to stand and swayed a little.
“Do you need help?” I reached to assist, and he gently shrugged me off.
“I’m fine,” he mumbled.
I swallowed hard and nodded, trying not to take offense at his brushoff as I turned to give him my back so he could change.
“We’ll wait outside,” Drea said, and yanked everyone out with her.
I stood awkwardly, facing the door my friends had just pulled shut as Gage finished dressing.
Gage was back. He was alive and almost-kissing me, but also stripped of power and super moody.
Crap.Not ideal. I would prefer if he were reciting love poems and confessing his undying love or something equally mushy, but he did say he missed how I smelled and I was taking that as a win.
Eat your heart out, Claire.
I cleared my throat, not because I needed to, but because the silence was getting to me. It was awfully quiet behind me. I couldn’t even hear the rustle of clothes anymore. What was he doing back there?
A hand rested on my shoulder, startling me, and I spun to face Gage, who was now dressed in one of Dash’s hoodies and a pair of dark wash jeans.
Gage might have lost his Shade powers, but his ninja skills were still intact.
Now that he was clothed, I took a moment to take him in, toreallylook at him. Dash’s clothes fit him near perfectly and were only slightly bigger, but the truth was that Gage could wear a potato sack and make it look sexy. That much about him hadn’t changed—but it felt like something else had. His eyes were the same shade of wintergreen that I remembered, but the spark of life was gone, leaving a hollowness behind I wasn’t used to.
Was that because of what Arthur had done to him, or had something happened to him in Avalon? I mean, nearly being killed by your father had to mess with your head, but so would being stripped of your powers.
“How long was I gone?” Gage asked, his accented syllables echoing off the thick walls of the chamber.
“Fifteen days,” I answered, as Gage shook his head and blew out a breath of air.
