AllFreeNovel
Share Us
"Shhh," he murmured, scattering kisses across my cheek, stroking my hair. "It's just a nightmare, Avie, you're safe."
I panted, clutching at the soft cotton shirt he'd slept in, the heat of his body telling me I was safe, he was here, I wasn't being cut apart. But…
"It was X," I gasped, my voice shaking. "In my nightmare—I know it was him."
Arkan shifted our position until he sat against the wooden headboard of the hospital bed, pulling me into the warm circle of his arms so I fit closer to him.
"Take a breath. Whatever it is, we'll face it together."
I choked down air, shuddering in Arkan's hold, panic gripping my chest so viciously that it was a war just to breathe.
"I was strapped to a chair," I rasped, "and someone was cutting me with a knife. It was like—like Jacko back in the barn, but I could sense I wasn't … wasn’tme.I was X, Arkan. I wasX, and he was being tortured and cut apart and then—then—"
"Shhh," Ark soothed, crushing me closer to his body, hugging me in the dark of the hospital. "We're going to get him back; you know we are. Tomorrow, I'll set out to the black armoury and rig it with traps so—"
"You can't leave me!"
"Then come with me," he soothed, stroking his cheek against mine like an affectionate cat.
"I can't leave Taj and Dev," I choked out. "Fuck, I hate this. We need to find that sceptre but—Ark, he stopped screaming. Just before I woke up, all the pain cut out and then there wasnothingand—"
"No," he argued before I even finished. "He's still alive, Avie."
But I shook my head, over and over. "The pain was all he could feel. It was endless, and so fucking strong that he screamed even though he tried not to." I wet my dry lips, struggling to breathe. "There's only one reason the pain would end, Ark."
"Don't," he choked out, and my chest caved in when I realised this was Arkan’s breaking point, like Taj and Dev not healing earlier was mine.
I caught Ark’s face before he could turn away from me, kissing him with a desperate plea, as if a kiss could fix me.
"We'll find him," he insisted against my mouth, but there was no hiding the crashing sensation in our bond, like he'd just slipped off the edge of a cliff, free falling into an ocean of panic.
"How?" I gasped, my hands shaking where I held tight to him."How,Arkan? We don't even know where to start looking; he could be anywhere."
But there was no point talking about this. I knew what I felt. I knew what happened.
My mate was dead, and we were looking for a corpse.
4
Ididn't bother getting out of bed. Even when Marjorie poked her head out of the little room at the back where she slept on call, I didn't lift my head off the pillow. Arkan left at four a.m. to put together an emergency expedition to the black armoury, but I laid there, staring at nothing, beside Dev and Taj. As if I was in a coma, too.
I felt so dead, I might as well have been unconscious.
Maybe I should ask Marjorie to knock me out with some of her magic demon drugs. I was on the verge of asking her for a little dose1when a roar of commotion rippled through the castle.
I focused my eyes, hating myself as I looked at Dev and waited for his eyes to flutter open. I hated myself even more when I looked past him for any change from Taj. He was still breathing; I should count myself lucky for that. I thought his breathing seemed deeper, steadier, but I was so fucked in the head I was delirious, so it was hard to tell.
X was gone. My beautiful X, my talented dancer, my sweet, sweet mate.
"What's all that racket about?" Marjorie muttered, mixing up a tincture by the wall. "It better not be that lizard cunt back again."
I had a moment of surprise at hearing the C word from mild-mannered Marjorie, but then her words hit and I shot out of bed.
"Ark," I breathed, spearing through my battered soul until I found the place we connected. I found Arkan pacing like a snarling wolf.
"Protect my mates," I ordered the medic as I launched towards the door. "That's an order. If you fail,you die,"I growled, so far gone I couldn't even soften myself for the kind woman.
But she nodded and grabbed a knife with a long, sharp blade from a cart of medical supplies. Huh, they stored knives there? I wish I knew that before.
