But the man who had plunged the spear… where was he?
SEE IT, SEE IT, SEE IT!
A sob blocked my throat.
CHAPTER 2
Noa
Voices, raised. Scraping metal… chairs being moved. The beeping machine was singing with alarms. My legs were trembling. Spasms worked through my body hard enough to rock the bed. Hands pressed against me. The heat in my veins turned scorching as I thrashed.
Someone screamed, “Get her alpha!”
My heart lurched. Grayson!
Was he coming? I wanted him to come, but I didn’t at the same time. Didn’t want to face him with what I’d done. How I’d let his friend die, helped fulfill the prophecy—all those around him, people he loved, would die while protecting him.
The cry rising in my throat was garbled, frantic, barely croaking around the obstruction. My back arched like a breaking bow.
“More ice.” The female’s voice, followed by the crisp, wet clattering against metal as cubed ice avalanched over my hands and wrists. Water oozed, trickled. I shivered beneath the frigid onslaught.
“It’s cold, Noa, but we’re trying to help you. No, don’t talk. Leo’s here.”
LeoLeoLeoLeo!
Euphoria made me giddy. Terrified. I forced my eyes open, a mad woman searching for sanity.
“Noa.” Leo’s hands were gentle. His beloved face, his old eyes still bright as his gaze locked on mine. “You have a breathing tube, but I’m going to take it out. Can you cough for me, sweet girl? Yes, like that.”
I gagged on the saliva that flooded faster than I swallowed. Pain rasped in my throat. Leo cupped my face and turned my head to the side while someone raised the head of the bed. Small details registered. I was in a clinic. Perhaps a hospital. The scents were acrid, other than Leo’s familiar spicy aftershave.
LeoLeoLeoLeo!
He wasn’t dead. Amal hadn’t killed him when she destroyed Azul.
I wanted to grip his hand, but all I did was clench at the dripping, icy sheets.
The beeping machine went crazy before the sudden silence; thank the gods that someone flipped the switch, muting the pinging. But the jagged white line still bounced across the black screen. Red numbers flashed.
Leo ran his calloused thumbs across my forehead. The numbers slowed. He cupped my nape, probing gently, then pressed against my throat, the hollow between my collarbones. His jaw tightened. Although his eyes never left mine, his voice was low and threatening. “Remove those restraints.”
The woman gripped her hands. “I have no authority.”
“I do.” Fallon’s voice, her Alpha voice, a tone that demanded obedience. Joy crashed through me.
Fallon was alive. She was here, standing in the doorway, her weight supported by crutches, her right leg encased in a white cast. “Get that shit off her. What the hell?”
“We had no option.” The male who wanted me put under—I recognized his voice. His expression was pinched as he pushed past Fallon. When his shoulder punched hers, she punched back with more strength than he expected.
He stumbled, and while I don’t think I smiled, I might have. My face was still too numb to know.
“Where’s Caerwen?” Fallon demanded. “Effa?”
“Nymphs are tied to their home environment,” the woman explained. The tag on her blue scrubs said Valeria. “They can’t stay away for extended periods without going back to recharge. We expect them back tomorrow, but Noa had an… episode yesterday.”
Fallon narrowed her scary-bitch gaze on the male. “Explain.”
A muscle ticked in his jaw. “She was singeing the sheets. We had to restrain her before she caught the room on fire.”
