Page 234 of House Ignis

Ezra didn’t hesitate. He was at the bedside in a heartbeat, sliding one arm behind my back and the other beneath my knees. He lifted me as if I weighed nothing, but his grip was careful—protective in a way that startled me even through the white noise of the pain.

He carried me into the bathroom, his jaw tight as he lowered me gently into the steaming water. I was still in yesterday’s sports bra and yoga pants, but I didn't care. The moment the heat wrapped around my body, the iron grip in my stomach began to unclench. My fingers gripped the edges of the porcelain as I squeezed my eyes shut, waiting.

Waiting for the fire in my blood to settle. Waiting for my body to remember how to be mine again, without the bond to anchor it.

Hot water always helped. It was the great irony of my life: fire lived inside me, but only the water could keep it from burning me alive.

Eventually, the flare began to recede.

The pain didn’t vanish all at once; it never did. It loosened slowly, reluctantly, like serrated claws releasing their grip from deep inside my abdomen.

The scalding water wrapped around me, the heat soaking into muscle and bone, dulling the worst of the jagged edges until they were just a dull, throbbing ache.

I finally forced my eyes open.

Ember was leaning against the edge of the tub, her head tipped back against the cool marble.

Her eyes were half-closed, her face pale, as if she’d been holding herself together by sheer force of will while I screamed.

Aether sat beside the bath, massive and still as a mountain. His golden gaze was locked onto me with an intensity that made my chest ache with a sudden, sharp surge of gratitude.

On the other side, Ezra sat at the far end of the tub, perched on the edge like he didn't quite trust himself to be any closer.

His elbows rested on his thighs, his hands clasped tight enough to turn his knuckles white.

“I’m okay,” I whispered hoarsely.

My voice barely sounded like mine—it was a wrecked, hollow thing.

Ember’s eyes snapped open.

She immediately grabbed my hand, squeezing it so hard I could feel the tremor in her fingers.

“Thank fuck,” she breathed, relief flooding her face as a shaky smile finally broke through.

“That one was bad, Ava. Really bad.”

“I know.” My gaze dropped to the rippling water, the surface shimmering with the heat. “I had a dream. A nightmare. I think it… it triggered the flare.”

Ember nodded slowly, her expression darkening with a shadow of memory.

“Yeah,” she said quietly. “You haven’t had one like that since—”

She didn’t finish the sentence. She didn’t need to.

Jax.

His absence hung between us like a ghost neither of us dared to name out loud.

The silence settled heavily in the bathroom, thick and suffocating.

Until—

“So.” Ezra’s voice cut through the quiet like a blade.

Both mine and Ember’s heads snapped toward him.

He straightened, his arms spreading slightly in a gesture of pure, unadulterated disbelief.