Sin also informed me that I was a whining baby.
He did make me soup though, between massaging my aching muscles. While keeping the blinds down and the curtains closed. And he supplied me with endless aspirin. And kept everyone out of the room.
He was my Sin. And it was obvious he needed a break by day four.
When I blinked open my eyes and groaned, holding my head, I was staring up into brown patient eyes gazing down on me. King Collins sat on the side of the bed. His lips slowly quirked, and he kept his voice low in the darkened room. “Sin went for a drive…and he was still wearing the same clothes he had on four days ago.” My blink was sluggish, and I stared at the aspirin and water he held. “He told me to give these to you when you woke up.”
“I haven’t been that bad,” I grumbled, but I moaned when I lifted my arms to take the medicine and water from him. His eyebrows lifted, and I mumbled, “Whatever.” I blinked, staring at the pill and water. “Can you help me sit up so I can take these?”
His lips didn’t even twitch as he stated steadily, “Of course.” Bending, he placed his arms underneath mine, carefully lifting me until I was upright enough to take the pill. My hands shook as my body recoiled from the movement, while my head pounded a fierce beat at my temples. “Easy, easy,” he crooned, holding my back steady. He quickly grabbed my hand over the glass before I spilt it all over myself.
I guzzled it, completely parched.
After he placed the empty glass on the nightstand, he helped me lie back down. He pulled the blanket higher on my shoulders, leaning over me, and brushed hair off my face with careful strokes. “Was it worth it?”
“Yes,” I murmured, my eyes already closing again. His scent was comforting. “I can do it on my own now.”
He hummed quietly. “Doing it on your own isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.”
I sighed, but I found my head leaning toward his touch. “Shut up.”
A soft, deep chuckle. “You are one unique Prodigy.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Being ill, I missed the sedated spirit using my Primal Diamond to track Philip Masterson.
And the champion being shot in the head.
The One had pulled him back through the ether when he felt the spirit’s life force falter, but it had been too late. He was dead at the shot. His suicide mission, what he had begged me for after I had double-checked he was sane, he had gotten. A quick death for a noble cause.
The One had obtained the information we needed from the pull and instantly informed the Royals in the room. Philip Masterson was in Miami, Florida. The One left shortly after in respect for the dead, taking the man’s body back to the Temple and trusting the Royals to do what was necessary.
Before the mission I’d handed over the Primal Diamond to Sin with a direct look. I wasn’t sure how Sin had managed it, but somehow in the mayhem when the body had been pulled back through, he had retrieved it. The spirit had duct taped it to his hand so there was no chance of dropping it. Without remorse, Sin had returned the Primal Diamond to me, stealing from the dead.
Hours later, the mission didn’t feel like such a noble cause.
Philip Masterson managed to elude the MSA team who had struck the Miami-based shipping and exporting firm, a front for illegal firearms trafficking. The spirit had sacrificed his sad existence of insanity for nothing except the take-down of an illegal business, which could have happened at any time. But we weren’t shutting any of the businesses down yet in the hope Philip Masterson and Jacob Angel wouldn’t go to ground.
I felt like shit and utterly sick to my stomach at the decision I had made but, more to the point, I was also pained to know I had done the right thing even with the poor outcome.
“I’d like to get out for a little while,” I murmured quietly to King Collins. We sat at the breakfast table, others speaking around us. “You know…just get out for a bit.”
His lips pinched, but he eventually nodded. “As long as your guards go with you, I believe it would be good for you to get out.”
“I’ll be going with her,” Sin added, spreading jam on his toast. “We’re just going to hit a few of the shops downtown and maybe go to the park if she’s up for it.”
King Collins nodded in relief. “That sounds nice.” He blinked. “Wait.” Another blink. “By the term hit, you aren’t implying you’re planning—”
Sin shot a sharp look in his direction, cutting him off. He still wasn’t in the best of moods after diligently putting up with me for the past five days. “No. We’re merely getting out for a little while.”