“Gage,” I said, trying to see past the snarling beast above me to the man I knew was inside. “You don’t want to do this. I promise that blondes don’t taste good.” I went for humor, hoping that might break through the hellhound spell and get through to Gage.
Gage released a low growl, as if disagreeing with me, but I ignored it.
“Do you remember the first time we met?” I asked, picturing him sitting in the back of Sal’s Diner, his eyes following my every move. “I thought you were so handsome, but such a jerk.” Warmth filled me at the memory, remembering how I’d told him off. I hoped whatever positive vibes I had would start to rub off on him.
I continued speaking in low tones, reminding him of any good times we’d had together: our first kiss, when he’d opened up to me about his mother, even the time we’d snuggled together in a cave in the Netherworld. I don’t know if he understood anything I said or was responding to my energy, but his lips curled forward over his teeth and the growling stopped. I looked into his yellow eyes and I swear I saw a flash of green.
It was working. I was getting through to him.
Take that, Apollyon.
Led by curiosity, I started to lift my hand, wanting to see if Gage would let me touch him, but before I could find out the door burst open, glass shattering as it smashed against the wall, and Lumens flooded into the small restaurant.
Any progress I’d made with Gage slipped away in that instant. He jumped off me and prowled toward the mass of Watchers, the hair along the ridge of his back bursting into flames again as he snarled at them.
I scrambled to my feet, instantly spotting Aurelia and Theo in the front of the group, and started to breathe a sigh of relief, until Aurelia hefted a weapon that looked like a mix between a crossbow and a rifle and pointed it at Gage.
Cold dread settled in my gut. Did she not realize it was Gage?
I never actually considered that the Lumens would hurt Gage if they came. I assumed they would just contain the situation with non-lethal force, but the Lumens fanning out around us were all armed to the teeth with various light weapons that would surely injure or even kill a hellhound.
I surged forward, trying to get in front of Gage.
“No! It’s Gage! Don’t hurt him!” I yelled as Aurelia took aim, but it was too late.
With a growl, Gage leapt forward, jumping toward the group of Lumens threatening him.
A look of regret flashed across Aurelia’s face, and then she squeezed the trigger, letting loose a bolt that hit Gage square in the chest.
He yipped when the arrow found its mark, cutting through skin and muscle to sink into the meaty part of his chest. His body was thrown off course by the shock of the hit. He smashed into a table and chairs off to my left, and I lifted my hands to my mouth in horror.
She’d done it. She’d actually shot him.
“Gage!” I screamed and ran to his side as he tried to regain his footing, but his limbs kept buckling and he toppled back to the ground.
Reaching him, I fell to the ground at his head. His fur retreated as his human form came back. He stared up at me, his eyes flashing green, seeming to plead with me for an explanation, just before they closed for good.
CHAPTERFOUR
Istared at Gage through the metal bars of his new prison cell, my heart fractured but not shattered.
“You could have at least told me you were going to shoot him with a tranquilizer dart rather than an arrow,” I said, not taking my eyes off the steady rise and fall of his chest as he slept. I thought they’d freaking killed my boyfriend!
Aurelia tossed me an exasperated look, and I didn’t blame her. We’d already been over this at the restaurant after Gage had lost consciousness, as well as on the way back to the Lumen Compound, and then again several times since they locked him up here in the basement of the armory.
“And once again, I would have told you if there’d been time,” she said, doing a decent job of keeping most of her annoyance out of her voice. “I would never kill Gage, but I had to contain the threat.”
I released a heavy breath. “I know, and I’m sorry. I’m just…”
What words could adequately describe how I felt? When Aurelia shot Gage and I saw him go down, in that moment it felt like I’d died with him. It wasn’t until he’d returned to his human form and we were swarmed by Aurelia, Theo, and several other Lumens, that I realized there was no blood, and the bolt he’d been shot with had a fluffy red plume on the end. But the whole incident had triggered memories of when Indigo brought Gage to the Lumen Compound covered in blood and half dead already, and all the terrifying and confusing feelings I’d felt that night and the weeks that followed until he’d returned. Even now a fine tremor ran through my hands.
I shook my head, trying to clear the cobwebs. How had such a perfect night gone so wrong?
There was no doubt I had trauma when it came to Gage dying, but I was just going to have to learn to deal with it. None of us were promised tomorrow, and although tonight had been a close call, he was here, he was alive, and he was all right, and that was what I needed to focus on.
Aurelia laid a hand on my shoulder, and I glanced over at her. “I think you should return to the dorm and get some rest. It’s been a long day for you, especially with everything you found out about your sister. You need to rest, and Gage will probably be sleeping off the sedative until the morning.”
I pulled away from her, shaking my head. “No. I can’t go. I need to be here when he wakes up.”
