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My heart did that skipping, squeezing thing as I glanced at her one last time before quietly closing the door behind me.
Talon pushed off the wall from across my door, dressed for hunting. “I was giving you two more minutes before I started knocking.”
“I would have killed you for waking her.” I walked past my best friend, tying my hair behind the nape of my neck with an elastic band.
“Hence me waiting until I was positive that you were going to be late for the evening meeting.” He sent a sideways look my way as he kept up with my long strides down the wing we hunters had claimed for ourselves in the residence. “You missed evening repast.”
“I didn’t want to leave her side,” I grumbled the response as we reached the staircase that led down to the foyer.
“Look, it’s not for me to lecture—” he started.
“Then don’t.”
“You’re not feeding enough. You’re not eating.”
“I thought you weren’t going to lecture.” We hit the marble floor and kept going. I nodded at the staff, the talem we hunters still avoided taking.
“I said it wasn’t for me to lecture, not that I wasn’t going to.” He put his arm out, blocking me for show only. We both knew I could have walked right through him. “Listen to me.”
I halted my steps at his lowered voice and the concerned intensity in his eyes.
“You are my best friend, Ajax. You are my brother. I will not pretend to know what it is to be mated, let alone to be mated to a human you’ve only had a month with.” His shoulders dropped slightly. “All I know is that my brother is suffering. We can all feel your hunger. We know you’re not feeding enough—”
“I will not feed from anyone but my mate,” I growled.
“And she needs all her strength to sustain herself!” He hissed, his gaze darting toward the kitchen to be sure he hadn’t been heard. “We know. We all feel it. We are all…worried. Are you trying to die with her?”
My hands curled into fists at my sides and I pressed my lips into a thin line to avoid saying something catastrophic to Talon.
“Because that’s what it looks like from where I’m standing,” Talon finished in a whisper.
“I…” Air moved through my lungs, and I recognized the sharp bite of hunger within me, but I felt almost separate from my body, as though I might reside in this vessel, but I only existed for the woman in my bed. “I refuse to think about what will happen when Grace…”
An immovable lump formed in my throat and there was nothing I could do to swallow it down.
“Okay.” Talon nodded and squeezed my shoulder. “Let’s just do what we can to keep you healthy so you can keepherhealthy as long as possible, my friend.”
I nodded.
“Have you considered pausing time around her?” he asked.
“I’ve considered everything. If I pause Grace and I the way I did for us when we came out of stasis, then the cancer would still continue to grow. We hungered while in that bubble. We thirsted. Our hair grew.”
Talon nodded, sadness softening his aristocratic features.
“And if I pause only her, and remain outside the bubble, then she is frozen only as long as I can hold the power, which would require I stay in the room with her without touching her, talking to her, knowing anything more about her until what…humans find a cure? I already suggested it to Grace and she shot me down saying that she wasn’t going to be some Sleeping Beauty while I morphed into a bloodthirsty dragon standing guard.” My lips curved into a smile. Another thing I’d learned about my mate? She was all about the fairytales.
She loved magic.
Loved her power and was learning to control it with Alek’s help. She wanted control over something in her short amount of time, and this was it.
She loved everything about the world that was mine and should have been ours.
“I’ve never lost at anything since I discovered my power,” I said to Talon. “It’s the ultimate advantage in battle, in cards—”
“You cheat,” he accused softly, giving me a half-smile.
“I use every weapon I have,” I corrected him. “But knowing that my first loss is going to be the only loss that actually matters?” My throat closed and I shook my head.
