She looks past me to my dragon and back again before clearing her throat. “You’re an Air Protector.”
“Yes,” I grunt, watching her brows bunch together further.
“Then you have your own dorm.”
I roll my eyes. “I know, but I need to get into this one.”
She worries her bottom lip, irritating me further. “The fire is there to keep you out.”
“I’m aware, but my fated mate is in there and I need to see her.”
“Call her,” she retorts, narrowing her eyes, and I bite back a groan.
“I’ve tried that,” I lie. “She isn’t answering.”
She seems to gain a bit of confidence as her spine stiffens and she huffs. “Maybe that’s because she doesn’t want to talk to you.” Her eyes fixate on my bare feet for a moment before she looks back at my face. The ability to hold myself together is faltering.
“She’s only just been released from the medical center. I’m worried.”
It’s not a lie. An exaggeration, sure, but if Archer were here, it would flash as the truth.
“Oh,” she breathes, rocking from side to side as she considers me.
“So, are you going to help me out or not?”
Her eyebrows crinkle for a second before she exhales. “Fine.”
I grunt, placing my hand on her shoulder as gently as I can before we step through the flames. The second we’re on the other side, I take off, darting up the stairs without even a thank you. I should feel bad, but I’m too focused on the task at hand.
Until I find myself right outside her door, and regret starts to creep in.
Staring at the wood, I consider hightailing it back out of here, but a sniffle comes from the other side and my heart freezes. My pulse quickens in my ears as I hear a sob, and another, and another, and my soul threatens to rip in two.
Shame coats me, suffocating me as I splay my fingers across the door, the grain beneath my fingertips offering no solace as my chest aches.
I move on instinct, balling my hand into a fist before rapping my knuckles against the wood.
The sobs pause, and the sound of shuffling feet fills the silence before the door opens.
The medical center-issued gown is gone, and she’s wearing a pair of sweatpants and an oversized t-shirt. It’s a far stretch from the beauty that she always is, put together perfectly, all pristine and untouchable, but it’s the most beautiful I’ve ever seen her. Especially with the way her hair is all messy and bundled together on top of her head.
Curiosity flickers in her red-rimmed eyes, but it quickly morphs into disappointment. “Not today,” she mutters, moving to shut the door, but before it can slam in my face, she pauses, eyes glowering at me as she speaks. “Not any day, actually,” she clarifies with a nod, ready to put the obstacle between us.
“I need your help,” I blurt, just as only a sliver of light filters through the crack, and she freezes again.
“You don’t deserve my help,” she bites, and she’s not wrong.
“It’s not for me, it’s for Alaric.”
Seconds twist into minutes as she lingers with trepidation on the other side of the door, not completely blocking me out. “Alaric?”
“My dragon.”
“Is he okay?”
I scrub the back of my neck.
“He’s been struggling. He needs to see you’re okay.”
