AllFreeNovel
Share Us
There’s a moment of hesitation—so brief anyone else probably wouldn’t notice—before he extends his arm. The moment my skin touches his as I wrap my fingers around his wrist, electricity flares up my arm, and his eyes meet mine like he feels it too.
I’m the first to look away as I duck my head and bite down on his wrist.
“Adrienne filled me in on what’s been going on.” His blood has a similar effect on me as his skin, the warmth that floods through me as I drink so much more than just the natural heat of his blood.
I’mstarving, but the feeling is almost too much, so I only take as much as I need to get by before leaning back against the pillow with an involuntary sigh. There’s no pain, exactly. But the exhaustion clings to my every limb, weighing me down, like that place still has its hooks in me, trying to pull me back.
“Did they call you?” I rasp.
“No. I felt it when you crossed over. It was like the bond broke again, but I could also feel you, where you were. It just feltwrong.” When I let myself look at him again, his brow is knit, his eyes searching my face. “I’m so sorry I made you feel like you couldn’t come to me with this.”
“Reid, this isn’t your fault. I should be the one apologizing. I just…I thought I could handle this one myself.”
The tension in his face doesn’t ease, and he does not look the least bit convinced. “Are you in pain?”
“I’m okay.”
He doesn’t look the least bit convinced by that either.
“I promise. I’m just tired.”
The way he’s looking at me, all I want is to curl myself into it. All I see when I close my eyes are those papers covering every inch of his room, the picture of me beside his bed, the lashes across his back at the wolf camp, him staked to the wall, trying to get to me, his shy smile as he gave me the violin, the smile in his eyes when I woke up to him the next morning.
When he looks at me like this, it’s too easy for all the reasons we should be apart to lose their importance. There’s no war looming or fiancées or disapproval or danger. It’s just him and me and the desire to be close to him is an instinctual need that’s physically painful to fight.
Tears get stuck in my throat, and I turn away before he can see it written all over my face in addition to whatever he’s undoubtedly getting through the bond. So instead of launching myself into his arms, I roll away and tuck myself beneath the blankets.
“The book, did it—”
“It made it.”
“And the others?”
“They’re fine. Shaken up and tired, but they’ll be all right.”
That, at least, calms the tension in my shoulders, at least in part.
“There were wendigos here,” I say. “On the other side.”
“That’s what you said when you first woke up. I checked the area, and Radmore has its own protocols for keeping them off campus. No sign of them, from what I could tell. Not on this side of the veil, at least.”
I suppose if the wendigos were able to cause harm on this side, they would have already. I nod slowly, words I know I shouldn’t say on the tip of my tongue.
There are a million reasons for me to let him go now that I’m okay.
But even with this distance between us, lying here with him feels so much better than it should. His scent, his skin, his voice—I feel like an addict, unable to tear myself away. Unable to even bear the thought. Just having him in the same room is a comfort I haven’t felt in weeks.
“What was it like?” he murmurs. “On the other side?”
“Terrifying,” I admit. “It was like being underwater, like being buried alive. There wasn’t any color, any light. And I don’t know if the things I saw…if I was seeing things or if they were really there. How did you know I made it back? Could you hear me?”
“Not exactly. I think it was the bond, but it didn’t feel the way it usually does. I don’t know how. I just knew.” He sighs. “You should get some rest.”
I nod, my heart dropping at what I know comes next. An empty room. That tense silence between us returning.
But then quietly, he adds, “Would it…would it be all right if I stay?”
A tear falls onto my cheek, and I press my lips together to hold back my relief. I nod.
