How could I have forgotten about that? I leaned forward, ready to jump out of the bed, and then remembered I wasn’t dressed.Where the heck are my clothes?
“Gage saved me last night. Did he manage to kill the hellhound, or did it get away?”
Hope started to blossom in my chest. He could be back safely within the Lumen Compound right now. I could see him in a few minutes and get that kiss I’d been craving, right after I chewed him out for leaving me, of course.
A crease formed between Aurelia’s scrunched eyebrows. “Gage? He hasn’t come back, honey. No one knows where he is.”
The hope that had started to grow a moment before leaked out of me like helium from a balloon. “But… he fought the hellhound. Saved me from being bitten.”
Aurelia was silent for a moment and then slowly shook her head. “No.Youfought the hellhound. Gage wasn’t there.” The tone of Aurelia’s voice softened. “I know you miss him, but you hit your head pretty hard. Things must have been incredibly confusing.”
They were, but I was more sure than ever Gage had been in the alleyway with me. I’d seen him battling the hellhound before everything went black. My imagination hadn’t made that up. Right? Without Gage, I would have been a chew toy for that monster.
“No, he was there,” I insisted.
Aurelia exchanged a look with Gran. I turned to Gran and then back to Aurelia. It was clear neither of them believed me.
“He. Was. There,” I pressed them both.
Just because they didn’t see him didn’t mean that he hadn’t been there. But did that mean he fought the hellhound and then left me lying in the alley unconscious and unprotected? That wasn’t something Gage would do. He would have at least stuck around to make sure I was safe before taking off again.
Aurelia took a deep breath. “Let’s just be glad you weren’t bit by that hellhound. Then we’d have a real issue on our hands. Get some rest.” She reached out and squeezed my shoulder.
I dropped the Gage subject and she turned to leave the room when I remembered Indigo.
“Aurelia?” I called out, and she turned to me. “My friend… a Shade I met named Indigo, was there and unconscious. She’s a good person caught up in a bad crowd. Did she make it?”
I held my breath. I couldn’t bear the thought of hearing she died.
Aurelia nodded. “All of the Shades got away,” she said before she left the room, saying she had a few more team members she needed to check on.
I had a sinking feeling about all of this. I know Gage wanted his space, but where did he go? He must have stayed in town and was watching over me. He was there last night; I would swear it on my life. He’d pushed that hellhound off of me.
But was he hurt? Was he worse than hurt?
The hellhound had taken me down with ease and I had all my Lumen powers. Granted, Gage had years of training, but none of his abilities or former supernatural strength. He was, by his own admission, a weak human.
Fear pierced my heart. Gage might have said he needed time to figure his life out alone but forget that. I was going after him and nothing was going to stop me.
* * *
I hadn’t wasted any time getting dressed and busting out of the healing center. I swore up and down to Gran that I was fine, and she let me go. I still had some aches and pains, but I’d also slept for half a day, and so I was ready to rock and roll. Even though Drea and I shared a room, I knocked on our door before entering.
“Come in,” she called from within. Gran had said that she’d dropped off a fresh set of clothes for me at the healing center while I was unconscious, so she couldn’t be too mad at me… right? Even so, I took a deep breath before pushing open the door.
Drea looked up from her bed and her face clouded with anger the moment she spotted me.
“Hey,” I said.
“Hey,” she said, and then diverted her attention back to the magazine she’d been flipping through.
Okay, message received. She was definitely still pissed at me. Better to dive into this conversation rather than put it off. I needed Drea’s help if I was going to be ready to storm the Netherworld in two weeks and somehow find Gage before then. And also, Drea had quickly become one of the most important people in my life. I didn’t like my friend being mad at me.
“Drea, listen, I’m really sorry about knocking you out, but Skye said that if you entered the fight you’d die.”
Drea lowered her magazine, and still glared at me, but I think there might have been a hint of softening in her gaze.
Since she was letting me talk, I plowed on: “Skye was right about things going south if we tried to contact my mom, so there was a good chance she was right about your death as well. I wasn’t willing to gamble with your life.”
