His dark attire seemed to obscure the room. His brows pulled down with worried confusion rolling in his cinnamon eyes that were not quite looking at me yet.
“Fletch—Fletcher! Help!” I screamed.
His eyes fastened onto me, then at what Mirin was doing. I saw the shock ripple through him as his lips parted and his eyes widened, storm clouds gathering in their depths. He ran to me in two long strides, slamming his hands against the glass, watching each of Mirin’s movements. “Ripley!”
I was sobbing at both the relief that Fletcher had found me and the grief that he was watching. “Help!” I sobbed. “Please!”
He didn’t say another word. With the tears in my eyes, he looked like a menacing shadow dashing around the cage, searching for a weak point to break in, calling forth my blue magic running in his veins.
“Please!” Mirin’s movements caused shooting pains with every thrust. “Hurry.” It came out as a raspy cry.
A loud popping sound startled me as Fletcher pried apart the glass tunnel through the small gap where the glass barrier used to be with his magic-filled hands.
Our cages moved at an angle as Fletcher stalked in with the air of death cloaking him. He ripped Mirin from me by the throat and used my magic to throw him back to his cage.
I heaved air as my body collapsed to the ground like a rag doll. With the little amount of energy I had left, I curled my weak limbs into a ball and stared into the distance, tears streaming down my cheeks.
In the corner of my eye, I watched Fletcher and his powerful aura of darkness expand the confines of my cage, suffocating me. He stuck out a glowing hand in Mirin’s direction, holding him back with magic while he slowly crouched beside me.
For a moment, he was silent, his eyes assessing my face. That obscurity spiraled around me, enveloping me in a warm, protective cocoon. And when I didn’t resist it, I learned something very important. His energy wasn’t all dark. Through the thick fog were dim lights of love that he was attempting to hide—to spare me.
I wanted to fall into his arms and disperse the darkness in his mind. And if I could accomplish that, perhaps his love could heal me.
In the softest voice I’d ever heard him use, he said, “Are you okay?”
I looked up into his venomous eyes and pleaded, “Get me out of here.”
He nodded once, put his hand on my cheek, and said, “Yes, princess.”
His touch was tender and gentle. It was the light in his dreary fog. I unwillingly leaned into his palm—into my only hope for safety.
In a flash, we scattered. I clung to his touch as the wind swept us away and put me back together in Aldris’s bed. But Fletcher was nowhere to be found.
I reached out for him, but he wasn’t there. Chills crept up my neck and onto my scalp. My breathinghitched as my heart raced. I needed him to ground me. I cried, “Fletcher?”
A few moments later, he appeared beside me and more tears fell down my cheeks.
“Sorry, I brought the man to Elizy.” Swirls of my magic bent and twisted down his arms, releasing from his fingertips. The golden shackles around my wrists snapped in two and fell to the mattress.
“May I?” he asked, hand nearing my arm.
I nodded.
Slowly, he rested his hand on my forearm, taking all the damage on my body and making it his own.
I watched him flinch once as the holes ripped open over his skin. Then, the punctures moved until all were hidden under his shirt.
He must have been in a lot of discomfort. Echoes of the pain I had endured from the Cidris and my mother’s farming rippled through my mind. To have both, I couldn’t imagine.
He picked up the cleaved shackles and placed them on the nightstand before wrapping a blanket around my bare back. He clasped the two ends in front of me. “Here, hold this,” he said.
My fingers slowly curled around his, grasping at the fabric to keep my naked body concealed.
I looked at him—at the distance between us—and didn’t know what to make of it.
“I was too late,” he murmured. “I shouldn’t have listened to Aldris.”
“Fletcher,” I breathed, falling into his chest and breaking that space of tension between us. My cheek landed over his chest. His heart was pounding as his arms barred around me, bringing me closer against him.
