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AUDREY
The next time I surfaced,Bishop was setting me on a folded blanket on the ground, a large boulder at my back to help me sit upright.
“There she is,” he said, his eyes lighting with warmth. “How do you feel?”
He brushed a lock of hair from my face, and I dragged my wavering gaze from him to the fire behind him, my thoughts moving in slow motion. The flames danced merrily, crackling and snapping as Cyrus slowly turned some kind of animal on the spit above it.
Behind him, I could make out hints of rocky landscape, a thick shrub covered in leaves and small white flowers, and a dark sky with only a hint of light at the very edge of the horizon, indicating that the sun had just set.
“Where are we?” We weren’t in the death god’s lands — the ground hadn’t been this uneven and the shrubs shouldn’t have had leaves let alone flowers. That, and I felt like we’d already returned to Kelna, that we should have still been there.
But my thoughts were too fuzzy, swirling around and around, too soft to properly catch, and I couldn’t get past when we would have gotten back to Kelna in the first place. The spell at the death god’s temple had failed… I’d been too cold… I—
Realization stole my breath and I pressed my hands over my heart. The bond.
“Your heat turned into a fever,” Bishop said, his brown eyes searching mine looking for… I didn’t know what. Recognition? Remembrance?
There was something there, but it felt so far away, pushed down beneath a viscous sea of darkness.
“The only way to break the fever was to seal the mating bond,” he added.
Yes. I nodded slowly, my cheeks burning as some of the memories filtered back in and my stomach twisting with the thought of that horrible dream.
“But don’t worry.” He sat beside me and pulled me into his lap. The warmth of our shifter connection swelled within my chest, soothing and steadying me. “As soon as you’re strong enough, we can bond.”
And then I’d be in a second mating bond with a guy I barely knew.
My throat tightened at that. I didn’t know why. I felt safe with Bishop, was attracted to him, and knew he’d love me. But that didn’t negate the whirling mess of emotions inside me for Knox or the nagging doubt from my nightmare.
My soul said Knox was my mate and always would be. I couldn’t just bond with Bishop and forget about him… even if that was what Knox wanted.
The shrub rustled and Knox stepped out from behind it, carrying an armful of branches for the fire.
My gaze instantly jumped to his and I was drowning in the brown depths of his eyes. Even in the darkness with him standing at the edge of the fire’s light, I was pulled into those depths.
The heat in my chest billowed stronger as if he were holding me as well as Bishop, and the realization that he could affect me like that without touching me stole my breath.
I ached for him. But it wasn’t the desperate consuming need that I’d fought before. This was a sadness, a recognition that he wasn’t rushing to my side, and a knowing that he still wanted to put distance between us.
But if I looked deep — or perhaps that was if Isenseddeeper into our bond — I could also see uncertainty.
Of course, he had lots of reasons to be uncertain about me. He was probably still angry that I’d forced the bond on him and that to save me — and hence save himself — he’d had to complete it.
Cyrus huffed, breaking the spell between me and Knox, and handed a canteen to Bishop.
“Drink,” he said, shooting me a stern look along with a ripple of power that thankfully wasn’t strong enough to compel me.
I raised my hands to take it from Bishop and realized they were trembling and weak. In fact, all of me was weak and worn out. Was that from the fever? How—? “How long did it last?”
“Your heat fever?” Bishop asked as he helped me drink. “Nine days.”
“Nine days?” I gasped. “I’ve been out of it for Nine days?”
“Longer,” Cyrus replied without looking away from the fire while Knox took up position opposite me and broke apart the branches into fire-appropriate pieces. “Do you remember? You passed out before we’d even gotten out of the death god’s lands. Then it was seven days in Kelna and three more after we left.”
“Those last three were aided by a sedative,” Bishop said. “The fever exhausted you and you needed to recover.”
I motioned for Bishop to help me take another long sip of water, unsure what to say to that.
