“And-drew?” she stuttered, her voice sounding frantic.
Cal sighed. “Andrew might be dead.” He gulped down the lump in his throat, watching Kelly’s eyes for signs of shock. “He was taken by Lazarus’s pack during the battle at the lunar eclipse.”
To Cal’s amazement, Kelly sighed and relaxed back into her pillow. With a small smile for him, she reached out her hand, searching for Cal’s. Confused, he clasped onto her fingers and squeezed. “Thank you,” she breathed as she closed her eyes. “He kept me like this,” she whispered, then seemed to fall asleep.
Her last murmured words were so muffled that Cal almost didn’t hear them. He snapped his eyes up to Lance’s, who nodded in return. “Yes, I fucking heard that too,” he snarled.
“What do you think it means?”
Lance folded his arms, his eyes growing dark with anger. “It fucking means that Andrew kept her in the coma somehow. He fucking kept her trapped in her head. And it doesn’t fucking surprise me.”
Cal frowned as he turned his eyes back to Kelly. “She’s sleeping. We’re going to have to wait to find out more.”
“Well, I think I’ve heard enough. That bastard had a lot of fucked-up ideas about the Huntress. It doesn’t surprise me in the least that he would do this to her.”
“All the same, I’d like to know why.”
Kelly’s chest rose and fell in a steady deep rhythm, her eyelids flickering, her lips curled in a smile.
“You should go get the healer. He’ll be able to tell us what the hell is going on,” Cal said.
“Will do. But, Cal?”
Cal looked up. “Yeah?”
“You may never know why. Andrew might just be that fucked-up guy who wanted control.” With one final look at the bed, he left the room.
Cal nodded as he lowered his gaze back to Kelly, shock still resonating through him. How could she wake up now, weeks after Andrew had been gone, if there wasn’t some connection? If it was true, maybe it could explain the reason for Andrew’s bizarre behavior.
He knelt beside the bed, his hand still clasped in hers as he laid his forehead to rest on the mattress. Cal’s mind spun with his emotions, battling for purchase. Longing for Morgan, anger mingled with pity for Andrew, relief for Kelly, and duty to the Order.
Chapter Forty-Three
Mine
I sat on the porch, on the swinging bench I’d just installed, enjoying the dying summer. It would soon be fall. It would soon be time for classes to begin.
The houses around mine were filling with students again. All had been rented to eager young adults, all bouncing with excitement. All embarking on this new journey in their lives, away from home, making new friends.
I smiled as I took another sip of my coffee. I’d be starting classes soon, as well. I’d reenrolled, signed up for my courses, revisited my thesis advisor. I felt like a new person. A phoenix reborn. Renewed, invigorated, ready to conquer my studies. After all that I had been through, completing my thesis seemed like a cakewalk.
The fog of depression that had threatened to eat me alive was gone. Cal and his bond had taken care of the worst of it. I could thank him for that at least. He’d saved my life in a way. Freed me from the debilitating depression that had stopped me from living for far too long.
Now it was gone, and I felt like I could breathe again.
The only thing that dragged me down now was the longing I felt for Cal. The intense burning need to touch him, to be with him, to hear him speak. I hadn’t yet worked up the nerve to break the bond. Partly because I hadn’t really met a man who interested me like Cal did—a man who made me burn with desire like he had. The other part that stopped me from breaking the bond was this crazy hope of mine. I foolishly thought that one day I would wake up and he would be there, waiting for me to open the front door, or better yet, curled up behind me in my bed.
But that hadn’t happened. Every morning for the past seven weeks, I’d woken alone, the intensity of my longing bringing me to tears. I wasn’t worried about falling into depression again—I felt too powerful for that. But I did miss him. A lot. And I knew I couldn’t compete with his loyalty to the Order. He wouldn’t betray his vows.