This wasus.
I tried to move, to sit up, to take in the scent, tounderstandwhat had just happened. Layla had provided a brief summary, saying I’d almost died, but…
I blinked. Glancing down, and gaped at the blood coating my chest, my skin,my entire body.
Holy fuck.
No wonder it felt as though the energy had been leeched from my core.
I swallowed, nausea pulsing through my stomach as I flexed my fingers, finding dried blood crackling over the seams of my palms.
Fuck, I thought again, dizzy from the revelation of my near death. Dizzy from the insanity of this situation. Dizzy from the lack of a memory of what exactly had happened. Dizzy from the energy swimming in the room, the allure of it making me want todrink, todevour, toclaim.
Pull it together, I told myself, giving myself a mental shake.
There wasn’t time to daydream. There wasn’t time to gather all my bearings. Whatever was outside was coming, just as Layla had warned.
I could feel it.
Glimpses of what led to this moment pulsed behind my eyes, memories of Auric, of Netiri, of being…
Stabbed.
I shuddered.I could do without that feeling again.
But it was there, pulsing in my chest, only to be warmed by another energy source, one I hadn’t quite considered yet.
A healing sort of energy.
Raven.
I vaguely recalled Auric yelling her name, his frantic call making me push the words through the palace to reach her ears. It’d been my final fight, the last fragments of my power enforcing that single word for reasons I couldn’t quite define.
Just that it had felt right.
Because Auric had shouted it, he’d made it clear she was needed.
I’d instinctually listened.
I’d ensured she could hear it, too.
And she healed me.
The nearly unconscious female groaned as one of her mates held her aloft like a broken bird, making my chest tighten with gratitude and shame.
Gratitude that she helped me.
Shame that it had hurt her.
She’d supplied me with an incredible amount of energy—exactly what I’d needed to survive what should have otherwise been a fatal wound.
“We need to go,” Layla said, interrupting my thoughts and yanking me back to the present.
A present where that energy swam all around her and the palace walls reverberated with angry warnings.
“Where?” Zian demanded, pointing at the window. “We’re surrounded.”
“Key,” Raven whispered, her big dark eyes opening as she met my gaze. “Ketos… is… key.”
