“Call the healers!” Angel roars, his chest vibrating from the force.
I cry out when my arm grazes his shirt, and he whispers a quick apology.
The healer rushes in and asks Angel to place me on the bed, but he just glares. He ignores the healer’s request until Grace breaks through the wall of guards surrounding the med bay and scolds him for still holding me and not listening to the healer.
Someone rolls me on my side to check my back, and a shiver of pain runs down my spine. Angel is immediately in front of me, stroking my hair in a desperate attempt to help somehow.
Grace helps the healer cut my dress, and they both start applying a special salve over the blisters.
“The portal collapsed, Anxo. How is that even possible? One minute, Seiji is calling reinforcements, and the next, every single portal in the kingdom is gone. All of them collapsed at once.”
I wait for someone to respond to Grace, but silence hangs heavy. The lack of answers is starting to bother everyone.
“Why does she look so pale?” I hear Seiji’s voice, but it feels distant and muffled.
“What’s happening, Grace? Why does she look worse?” I squeeze Angel’s hand, hearing the panic in his voice.
Grace looks at the man, whose hair is turning grey from constant worrying about his mate, and sighs. “She absorbed a lot of dark magic, Anxo. What else do you expect? Thankfully, her Divine is resilient, or this could’ve been much worse.”
My grip tightens when Grace lathers the cooling balm overmy shoulder. “I don’t like how you played martyr again, but it was a good idea.”
Before I can agree that yes, I’m indeed brilliant, possibly even a genius, my sister swats the back of my head. “Stop smiling. Just because it worked doesn’t make it okay.”
Kind of a mixed message…
“I can’t take my eyes off you for one second without you doing something stupid.” Harvey starts going off on me, but immediately stops when I whine in pain… or maybe I act like it hurts because I don’t want to be scolded like a child.
Angel chuckles, shakes his head, and presses a kiss to my hand. Of course, he can tell when I’m faking it.
My mate doesn’t need to say it; his eyes talk plenty. He’s angry. “Why do you insist on giving me a heart attack every time I take you outside this realm?”
“To keep you on your toes.”
“I hate it.”
“But you love me?”
“With everything in me.”
I smile as my heartbeat slows, and my vision blurs. Angel slips a pillow under my head, telling me to rest, but I fight to keep my eyes on him. I don’t have to muster the strength to talk because he reads me without words.
“It’s okay, sweetheart. Take a nap. I’ll be right here when you wake up.” His hand caresses my cheek, looking like a man who just came back to life.
36. Error: friends not found
Nevaeh
Bringing the blanket over my head, I try to drift back to sleep, but last night’s memories keep flooding in, trapping me in a limbo between dreams and reality.
I pat the other side of the bed and shiver at the feel of cold sheets. That can’t be right. A strange ache stirs in my stomach. I’ve never woken up without my mate beside me.
Where is he?
I vaguely remember him carrying me to our room early this morning. He looked so tense, I was sure I’d find him pacing the end of our bed like a caged animal when I woke up.
Shoving the blanket aside, I notice faint traces of dirt on my arms. Maybe I should clean up before I go looking for Angel. I push off the bed, my muscles cracking like I haven’t moved them in ages.
Halfway to the bathroom, my steps falter when I look outside the bedroom window. A dark storm is brewing in the distance. I push the curtains wide, watching the heavy clouds rumble in warning.
