Her eyebrows shot up. “Technically, the doorway but—”
I waltzed across the street licking my gelato in full view of every person in Soho as Drea yelled my name.
Come on,Gage, I mentally taunted.What we had was real, you wouldn’t just leave. Would you?
I made it to the other side of the sidewalk and a few students stared at me. One of them looked familiar.
My heart pounded in my chest as I walked another step closer to the front door of Shade Academy. Two steps. Three.
As I neared the door, a pressure settled over my skin.
The protection wards.
I lifted my leg to take the final step and an arm hooked under my armpit.
“Are you insane!” Dash’s familiar voice growled into my ear as he dragged me away from the door and into a neighboring alley.
“Looks like you’re not chillin’ on the West Coast after all, huh?” I taunted. My eyes raked over his face and the bruises and scratches there. A small snake of anxiety started to slither in my belly. Why was he all banged up?
Guilt marred Dash’s features.
“Yeah, Dash…” Drea’s annoyed voice filtered down the alley as Dash cleared his throat, his cheeks pinking. “I thought you had to help family.”
Dash sighed. “I had to get away for a bit and help a friend. I didn’t want a lot of questions asked.”
My heart leapt into my throat. “Which friend? And why do you look like you’ve been in a demon fight?”
A conflicted look crossed over his face and then he sighed. “Gage got injured, he called and I—”
I stepped closer. “Where is he? Is he okay?”
Dash sucked his bottom lip into his mouth and stayed silent.
Drea advanced on him. “Dash Slate, we are a team. Gage may not have powers, but as far as I’m concerned he’s a Lumen and we take care of our own. If he’s hurt, then let us help.”
My heart swelled at the way Drea was standing up for Gage.
Dash scrubbed a hand down his face and then nodded. “Follow me.”
Gage was staying only a few subway stops over, off Canal Street. Dash led us up to a seedy apartment that was directly over a pawn shop whose window was so frosted with grime from the outside you couldn’t see in.
When we finally reached the apartment door, Dash stopped with his hand on the knob and looked at me. “He’s in a dark place. Go easy on him, okay? I’ve been there.”
His words shocked me, and the reaming that I was about to do on Gage for leaving me that stupid note suddenly diminished. My annoyance with him morphed into genuine concern.
When we stepped into the apartment, the coppery scent of blood immediately hit my nostrils and I rushed forward. Knocking Dash out of the way, I fumbled through the apartment in a blind panic until I spotted Gage.
He lay on the bed, covered in a mass of crusted gashes and barely healing wounds.
“Dash, he needs a healer!” Drea sucked in a breath behind me.
Dash rubbed the bridge of his nose, his shoulders hunched with fatigue. “Rose just left. He didn’t want to be brought into the healing center.”
Drea’s eyes widened. “This isafterthe healer?”
I was flooded with so much emotion that the physical act of keeping from crying was painful.
“Yeah. She saved his life.” Dash’s words brought me to my knees before Gage.
