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Rage fantasies flashed in my head, and I dozed off in the chair next to Cian’s bed thinking of all the ways I was going to torture Kaviathin when the day ever came. And Ryzen. Maybe tie them up together and unleash a fury of hornets. Or push them off a bridge. Either would work.
I awoke sometime later to fingers being dragged through my hair. I sat up with a gasp, and Cian chuckled. “Sorry to wake you, little star.”
“You’re awake!” I leaned over the bed and squeezed him as hard as I could.
“Nova, my shoulder,” he wheezed.
“Oh, fuck.” I pulled back. “I’m so sorry, Cian.” I caressed the side of his face, and he turned into my palm. “I was so scared. I thought you were going to die.” Tears welled up in my eyes, and I sniffled, trying to fight them off.
“It’s not going to be that easy to get rid of me.” He grinned and tried to sit up. He let out a small groan, his hand flying to his shoulder where the bandage was.
I helped him sit up—not that I could actually do much since he was the size of a house compared to me, but I did my best. When he was fully seated, he wrapped his hand around the back of my neck and tugged me to him. “Get over here,” he coaxed, and I climbed into the bed with him. His lips crushed into mine, his tongue velvety soft as it tangled with mine. I pushed away gently, my chest heaving as I searched for oxygen.
“OK, cowboy, turn it down a notch. Youwerejust shot.” I smiled and laid my hand against his chest.
His face darkened. “I’m going to kill that son of a bitch.”
“Why didn’t you want to go to the hospital, call the cops?”
His face twisted in anger, and I rubbed my hand over his heart. “We can’t trust the police, Nova. The hospital would have called them. It’s better this way. You saw all those reports Delove had. Kaviathin won’t let anyone get away with trying to take him down the legal way.” He flinched in pain, patting his shoulder. “He could have killed us all if he had wanted to. He just wanted to instill fear.” He looked at me and lowered his lashes. “If anything had happened to you…” He trailed off.
“Don’t think like that.” I pressed my lips to his cheek.
“I am nothing without you, Nova.”
My heart fluttered in my chest at his words. It was hard to grasp the number of emotions running through my body at that moment—fear that I was going to lose him, love for not. There was also an undertone of anger threatening to rise up to the top and spill over. “I’m going to fix this. All of it. They are going to pay. I won’t let anything happen to you. I am nothing without you, Cian.” I whispered.
He chuckled and pressed his forehead against mine. “My strong warrior woman. I’m the one who’s supposed to protect you.” His lips met mine again, a desperation in his kiss that I was all too familiar with. The need to be consumed by him was overpowering, but now was not the time.
“Get some more sleep, OK? We’ll talk when you wake up.” I tried to get out of bed, but he gripped me to him, and I shook my head, laughing.
“Stay. You belong here, right next to me.” He tilted his head back against the headboard and shut his eyes.
After a while his breathing slowed down, his chest rising and falling in an even rhythm. I lifted his arm from around my shoulders gently and scooted down the bed as quietly as I could. He looked peaceful now, probably because the painkillers had finally kicked in. I shut the door gently behind me and checked my watch. It was after midnight, but it felt like days had passed, not just hours.
I found Thora in the living room lying down on the floor, a crystal on her forehead with soft music playing. I chuckled; I should have known.
“How is he?” she whispered, not opening her eyes.
Damn, she was good.
“Good. Better. He’s sleeping again.” I lay down next to her and she pulled a crystal out of her pocket, handing it to me. I placed it on my forehead and shut my eyes. Before I had met Thora, I would have never imagined I would be the meditating type, but there was really something to it. Most people were afraid to look at themselves, like really look deep inside. And that was what meditation helped you do—check in with your body to see how you were feeling and acknowledge all those thoughts, the good, the bad, and the wickedly ugly.
We lay there for some time, not saying anything as the music played. At some point in between meditating and actually falling asleep, the music stopped, and she groaned.
“This app is driving me crazy.” She chuckled. “My friend had the right idea, but not the best execution apparently.”
“Can I ask you something?” I turned on my side and faced her. There had been something nagging at me, and I needed to ask someone who could possibly give me answers.
“Go for it.”
“I haven’t told Cian yet, because I wasn’t sure how he was going to respond. But when I was searching in Ryzen’s apartment, I found a lot of pictures of him, Cian and Gretchen in a box. Like hundreds of photos.”
“Hm, interesting.” She sat up and tapped her fingers together.
“Well, that’s not even the weird part. The weird part was I found her angel necklace in Ryzen’s desk, along with a chunk of braided hair. I’m pretty sure it’s hers. It has to be.”
“What a fucking creep.” Her face twisted in disgust. “I don’t know why he would have any of that… the photos, the necklace, and especially the hair.” She scrunched up her nose. “Especially not after what happened.”
