Austin.
He held a hand I couldn’t feel, bent over me, his tears dropping onto my chest. Sunlight streamed through the blue above me, behind one fluffy cloud. It almost looked like a dragon, that cloud. That was probably a good omen.
I didn’t dare move my head to look around. Didn’t need to anyway. All I wanted to look at was
that face, so handsome. Mine. My mate, staying beside me.
I struggled to say his name, but my jaw wouldn’t work. So I garbled instead.
His head snapped up, and I saw clean streaks down his cheeks where the tears had washed away dirt and grime. Hope filled his gaze.
“Oh baby, thank God,” he said, his other hand joining his first, though mine was still numb. “Oh thank God. Hold on, Jess. Please hold on. Indigo can help, okay? Just hang on a little longer and Indigo can help you. Keep fighting, baby. Keep fighting for me.”
“Yes! She’s giving me her lifeline,” another voice said, strangely distorted. “She’s giving me enough to work with. Hang on, Jessie, I got this, okay? I showed up for work today. I got it.”
It was all too confusing. Maybe because it hurt so damn much. I needed a break.
As the darkness welcomed me again, I knew it would be temporary this time. Just a break, and I’d try again.
THE NEXT TIME I awoke was so much better. It didn’t hurt nearly as much. The setting was different, though. Now I was inside, surrounded by smells I recognized. Filtered light came through a window to my right and somewhere beyond my feet. A heavy weight lay across my middle and warmth seeped into the skin on my left.
I fluttered my eyes open, taking stock of my surroundings. Austin’s living room.
I lay on a cot with white sheets up to my waist, still in my gargoyle form. The weight was Austin’s arm, across my middle. He sat beside the cot and was bent over, sleeping soundly on a sliver of cot at my side. His hair was wild and dirty, his face tear-streaked and grimy, and wounds and muck crawled out of his T-shirt neck and sleeve lines. He hadn’t cleaned himself up. He probably hadn’t left my side.
“Good afternoon.” Nessa stood from the couch, fatigue heavy in her features. She dropped a book to the side. “How are you feeling?”
I opened my mouth, remembering how much my jaw had hurt. It didn’t feel so bad anymore, not that I could talk with it. I’d need to shift back to human, but given the pain still radiating around my body, that didn’t seem like a great idea.
A tube ran from a needle in my arm to a medical bag on a stand to my right.
“That’s to make sure you get plenty of fluids,” Nessa said, coming closer. “You lost a lot of blood.
Like…a lot of blood. Stupid amounts of it. But Indigo says you’re out of the woods now. You’re going to be okay.”
Memories lay strewn around my head. Images. Pain. All I could really remember right now was pain.
“Sleep,” Ivy House said. “Sleep for a while longer until you have the strength to heal. Your mate will guard you.”
I did as she said, closing my eyes once more.
And then opening them again a moment later. Except the light was different this time, and it was Sebastian on the couch instead of Nessa. Someone else stood at my head, and Austin was sitting up in his chair, just as dirty as before. So exhausted looking, like he’d been awake for days.
“Here, sir, you need this.” The presence at my head stepped around, and I saw that it was Mr. Tom holding a plate. “You need to keep your strength up so you are nice and healthy when she wakes up.”
Austin’s eyes were glued to mine, and the look in them made me want to cry. I couldn’t explain it
with words, but I felt it in my heart.
This time I confronted the pain and shifted, things popping and cracking and creaking, agony lighting me up.
“No, Jess, careful,” he said, his voice scratchy, like he’d been screaming. Or crying.
I breathed heavily after the shift was done, things not quite right in my body. My leg felt all messed up, for one, and my arms were tingly in a way that said danger. Still, I had magic and energy.
I could heal this.
Getting to work, still so tired but no longer in as much pain, I struggled to swallow.
“Oh heavens.” Mr. Tom dropped the plate. It crashed on the floor, breaking. “Water. Wait there, miss, I’ll get you water. Get out of the way,” he yelled at someone. “She needs water!”
Austin’s smile was a thing of beauty. “He always did drop everything for you.”
The memories pieced themselves together—of what happened, of what we’d done.
“Nathanial?” I asked. It hurt a little to talk. My jaw still wasn’t right.
Austin put his hand on my shoulder. “He didn’t make it, Jess. He didn’t survive getting through that spell.”
Emotion welled up and sobs racked my body. “He sacrificed himself so that I would make it.” I labored to get it out.
“He’s a hero,” Austin said as Ulric walked to my right with Jasper in tow.
Ulric put his hand on the cot beside me. “He would’ve been relieved that you made it,” he said, his own eyes swimming in tears. “He would’ve been happy to know that his sacrifice saved you, and then you were able to save us all.”
“He was selfless,” Jasper said as Mr. Tom hurried back with a cup and straw. “He’s always been selfless. When you’re better, Jessie, we’ll honor him, okay? But you need to get better.”
“And the rest?” I asked, squeezing Austin’s hand tightly. “Did we do it? Did we lose anyone else?”
“Just rest now, okay?” Austin patted my hand. “Rest. We won, and Kingsley’s people are safe.”
WHEN I AWOKE NEXT, it was to darkness. I had a flashback of flying, of desperately seeking those mages, of shadowy figures holding blasters. I jolted, startled, my magic rising.
“Shh, shhhh. ” A familiar hand smoothed my hair from my face. “It’s okay. I’m here.”
I could barely make out Austin’s face in the darkness. His other hand still held mine. A loud bang sounded from somewhere in the house. A shape rose from the couch.
“I’m here!” Mr. Tom ran into the room in a sleeping gown and a matching hat with a little tassel at the end. “Candles. I’ll get candles!”
Flame danced above Cyra’s held-out palm, revealing her on the couch. She beamed at me.
“Jessie! It’s really good to see you.”
“What time is it?” I asked as Mr. Tom came back in with a lit candle, stopping by my feet and looking at me.
“Welcome back, miss. It’s just after midnight. How do you feel? You didn’t get a chance to drink any water last time—would you like some now?”
“You’ve been out for six days,” Cyra said. “I’ve been counting because that seems like a really long time for humans, and it was making me nervous.”
“Six days?” I asked.
“You had a lot of healing to do.” Austin’s thumb continued to move over my forehead, not any cleaner than before. He hadn’t changed his clothes, either. It was clear he hadn’t left my side for long enough to wash off the battle.