Still breathing. Still alive.
“What the fuck happened?” Sean demanded.
Soft blue eyes fluttered open, and she pressedher hand to her abdomen—two bloody rips in the fabric of her shirt. “Knife,” she managed.
Knife?
Had…had she done this to herself? No, that couldn’t be.
“Who—who did this?” Sean asked, horror dripping from his voice.
“He left,” she said.
“Sean, we need Isobel,” David said. “Now!”
“Right.” Sean rushed to the door. “Get her back to the Tree if you can. The infirmary!”
When he left, David scooped his hands beneath her slight frame, ignoring the blood soaked into the stones beneath.
Anna’s blood.HisAnna.
All thoughts disconnected from his body. He stood with her cradled in his arms. Pained eyes landed on his face, pleading. He felt that gaze like a sucker punch to his soul.
Her teeth chattered. “I’m cold.”
“You’re not cold,” he said at once, lacing his voice with magic. “You’re warm. It doesn’t hurt, love. It doesn’t hurt at all.”
“No, it doesn’t,” she slurred. Her eyes fell shut, and the tiniest smile appeared at her mouth.
No. Wait.
Wake up.
Wake up!
“Anna?” he demanded, using every bit of self-control to keep from shaking her. She didn’t stir.
Warm blood seeped into his shirt, eliciting a jagged sort of terror that tore through everything. Emotions rumbled behind the ice, shaking loose, but he couldn’t lose it. Not now.
Go, David!Sean’s voice shouted down the connection.
Cradling the precious cargo against his chest, he sprinted from the temple. People fell out of the way as he ran, some screaming or gasping at the scene he’d created. His lungs burned as he ran, butDavid called on his soulmate’s strength, his speed, forcing his own legs to move faster.
Agonizing minutes later, he’d reached the infirmary, ignoring the handful of people who followed. The spaes shooed them away, ushering him to a private room. Eyes followed them, but he paid them no mind. His gaze latched on Anna’s chest, watching the slow rise and fall—proof she lived.
“What happened?” asked the no-nonsense spae once he’d settled Anna onto the cot.
“I found her like this. I think she was stabbed. Sean’s getting Bel.”
The spae lifted the hem of Anna’s shirt to reveal her bronze skin caked in blood and two deep wounds still bleeding.
The ice took over, freezing him from the inside out.
“If she bleeds, that means her heart still beats,” the spae said and pointed to a shelf beside David. “Hand me that blue phial there.”
He obeyed, slapping the elixir into the spae’s hand just as the door opened and another spae entered.
“Ekko,” the new spae said. “What is it?”
