An arrow whirred through the air. Ari pulled Daphne off the snowmobile and shoved her to the snowy ground. Against her ear, he growled, “Stay down.”
Her heart beat hard. Another arrow whirred through the air. Ari jerked to his feet before she could grasp him, that crazed look darkening his eyes once more and twisting his features until she barely recognized him.
“Ari.” She reached out to draw him back to her. “Stop.”
But he was already was gone, racing toward the females she knew instinctively had never been her sisters.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Ari was in hell. Burning in the fires of Tartarus, unable to escape from the heat. He turned, kicked, punched out at the flames, but they snaked over his body and danced toward his face as if he hadn’t even moved.
He was going to die. Suffocate from the heat. From the smoke. And he deserved it after all the horrible things he’d done. After he’d left Daphne bloody and alone in those snowy woods. After he’d lost control and—
He bolted up, gasped in a breath, and stared into the flames across the room. A log rolled off the pile and sent a flutter of ash and sparks upward in the fireplace. Sweat slid down his temple and dripped along his spine as the crackle of wood echoed in the air, drowning out the sound of his heavy breaths, bringing consciousness slowly back into place.
His bedroom in the hold. He looked down at the soft bed, at the covers tangled around him. Kicking them free, he swung his legs over the side of the mattress, leaned forward, and dropped his face into his hands.
In. Out. He breathed deep as his heart rate slowly came down. He didn’t know how he’d gotten here or what had happened, but that was nothing new. Whenever he had one of his episodes, he couldn’t remember shit. All he knew for sure was that he was alive, he was naked except for a pair of boxers, and he was alone. But as soon as he closed his eyes, images flickered through his mind. The snowmobile. The Sirens. Arrows flying through the air. Daphne covered in blood, lying in the snow.
He jerked upright, walked across the room and back again so he didn’t completely lose it, and racked his brain, trying to remember what had happened. He could only see bits and pieces, not the entire scene, and his mind kept tripping over Daphne in the snow, blood staining her hands and shirt and pants, reaching out for him, telling him...
He stopped. His brow dropped low. Telling him what?
“Ari, stop.”
Her voice echoed in his head, the sound of her plea squeezing his chest so hard pain radiated outward from the spot. She’d been telling him to stop. To stop hurting her.
Bile slid up his throat. The walls closed in until he could barely breathe. Glancing quickly around the room, he spotted a pair of sweats he’d left on the chair days ago. With hands that shook so hard they barely worked, he pulled them on, needing air, needing to breathe, needing to run until the pain of disgust and regret loosened its hold.
He flung his bedroom door open, stumbled down the hall toward the great room and the wide deck beyond. Darkness pressed in through the tall windows. He had no idea what time it was, but he didn’t care. All he could focus on was freedom. All he heard was Daphne’s voice, echoing in his head.
“Ari, stop...”
“Oh my gods, that’s it. That’s...holy Hades, that’s it.”
His feet slowed just past the open library door. The first words had definitely come from his mind. A memory from the snowy forest. But the second...
He moved back to the library door and peered inside. A fire crackled in the fireplace, and in the middle of the floor, surrounded by books and notebooks, a slim female with dark, curly hair hanging past her shoulders sat cross-legged and scribbled on a piece of paper.
“Daphne?” he whispered.
Her head came up, and when her gaze met his, her green eyes twinkled. “Oh, you’re awake. Good. There’s something I want to talk to you abou—”
She wasn’t covered in blood. She wasn’t lying dead in the snow. Heart in his throat, Ari crossed the floor in three steps, grasped her at the shoulders and hauled her to her feet. The notebook and pen flew from her fingers. She yelped but he didn’t let it deter him. He closed his arms around her and held her tight.
“Um. Okay.” Her arms shifted around his back until they rested softly against his bare skin. “I guess that means you’re happy to see me.”