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She blinked, slowly turning her head to face me. “You’re awake, sugar.”

I shuffled over and joined her on the sofa. Everything ached when I sat down, the foggy worm in my head twisting and writhing.

“I’m awake,” I responded.

“Find some blood,” Selene pressed.

In a moment.

My friend’s hands were folded tightly in her lap, her spine too straight. “Before you ask,” she said, “I just need to be like this for a while. It’s the shock. I’m struggling with it.” Her eyes gleamed.

I despised seeing Medusa, my beautiful familiar, in pain. “I’m so sorry I ran into danger.”

She shivered. “I thought we were going to lose you. Vaughn told me about the curse. How you can’t die at the moment.”

Guilt licked me with its furry tongue. “I’m sorry.”

She kept her eyes on the blinds. “Don’t do it again.”

“I promise.”

“Good.”

I changed the subject. “What happened after Aidan attacked me?”

She explained how she’d gone back to get help from Paris and Declan.

Envy drew a cold, unwelcome finger across my soul at the mention of the alpha’s name. “Thank you. Are they here too?”

She shook her head. “I got you here and went back to the city, but they were gone.”

The elf wasn’t here.

The elf wasn’t here.

The elf wasn’t here.

Staying calm, I closed my eyes to find him. There, a bright spot on my mental map. A house at Southwood Downs in the Human Domain.

Too far away.

Safely far away.

My mind swirled with a cyclone of unwelcome suggestions.

Paris is with Declan.

Paris is out there with the wolf. Close to him, bonding with him. All of those things. The two of them alone, alone, alone, alone.

Paris with the capable man, a man whose very nature does not disgust him. A strong man he was not bred to hate. An alpha who can give him everything he’s always wanted.

Someone worthy of his love.

I leaned forward, putting my head between my legs. This was so ridiculous. Why did my mind have to play this game? There were bigger things for me to worry about.

Bigger things?

Is he not the biggest thing?