Damn hero complex.
She wiggled his toe. “Wake up, sleeping beauty.”
He jerked awake and dropped his foot to the floor. Eyes sleepy and sexy and a little dazed, he stared at her. Then moved so fast, she couldn’t track him. One minute he was on that chair, blinking as though he didn’t know who she was, and the next he was with her in the big bed, pulling her into his arms and holding her close.
Okay, not a bad way to wake up, all things considered. Casey’s heart kicked up as he ran his hands up and down her spine and spoke soft words in her ear in a language she didn’t understand.
Oh, man. She’d always been a sucker for the foreign-language thing.
“Either I was asleep a lot longer than I thought or you’re just happy to see me,” she teased.
He didn’t laugh at her joke, but his big body relaxed against her. “You’ve been asleep for nearly eight hours, meli. I was worried.”
Eight hours didn’t sound so bad. Considering she’d knocked herself out during the middle of a war, though…
“Where are we?” she asked against him.
“My home.”
His? Really?
“You’re completely safe here. The daemons can’t get into Argolea.”
They couldn’t? She wanted to ask why, but was distracted by the realization that…she was in Argolea.
Wow. That was just…wild.
“How did I get here? I thought Nick said I had to willingly cross the portal. I don’t remember doing that.”
He ran a hand down her hair, smoothing the stray locks back from her face. “You were a little out of it from the fall. Nick helped me bring you here. Yes, you agreed to cross, but you were going in and out of consciousness at the time. It doesn’t surprise me that you don’t remember.”
“Nick’s here?”
He shook his head. “He went right back.”
Back. To that battle. To the daemons attacking his people. Her people.
She grasped his forearm. “Marissa—”
“She’s fine. Nick and the others beat them back. They’ve been doing this for a long time, meli.”
Was that sadness in his voice or had she just imagined it?
And then she thought of Dana.
She dropped her head against his chest as a wave of grief rolled through her. “Where did he find Dana?”
His hand traced a lazy circle on her back. “I don’t know.”
But he did. She could hear it in his voice. Feel it in the tingle at the base of her spine, near her birthmark. Just as she sensed he wasn’t about to tell her the details. Because it had something to do with her. “I didn’t even know she was one of them. Us. Me. I should have. I always sensed she was different. She…” Casey closed her eyes tight. “We led them to the colony.”
“No. What happened wasn’t your fault. What happened to your friend wasn’t your fault. It was just…circumstances. Sometimes bad things happen for no reason.”
She knew that. Her whole life was filled with those rotten circumstances. But it didn’t make reality any easier to accept. And she missed Dana with a ferocious ache she wasn’t sure would ever ease.
When she finally let go long minutes later and looked up, the scratches and bruises on his face again reminded her of what he’d done. She ran her fingers over his cheek. “You look like you’ve been wrestling with a mountain lion.”
His sad smile nearly melted her heart. “I’m fine, meli. You were the one…” He closed his mouth, seemed to gather himself. “When I heard you scream…I shouldn’t have left you alone.”
Casey’s heart thumped against her ribs at the emotion she heard in his voice. She closed her hand over his. When their fingers intertwined, she had a flash of the battle. Of his fighting daemon after daemon, saving the lives of the Misos, hearing her scream and rushing for the tree just in time to catch her before she hit the ground. She saw her body slam into his and the way they rolled, the way he took the brunt of the force and shielded her from harm. Then he was on his feet again in a flash, clashing with the daemon at the bottom—the one waiting to kill her.
My hero.
The words revolved around in her head as she stared at him. And in that instant she knew. Whether she really was his or not didn’t matter. She’d fallen for this very unlikely hero who’d slipped into her life and turned her entire world upside down. Two days ago she’d been so angry with him, she could barely see straight. But now…
“What?” he asked.
“Nothing. I just…”
Now she loved him.
Her chest grew tight at that thought. Holy cow, was it possible? Could she…love someone? Especially him? He was an Argonaut. One of his race’s guardians. She still wasn’t entirely sure why he’d brought her here. And he despised humans.
“Are you all right, meli?”
No, she wasn’t all right. She was on the edge of freaking out. She shook her head to try to clear the fuzz and looked down at their joined hands. Then remembered the vision she’d had of him and his father in those woods. “What did he say?”