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Chapter Fourteen
Shirina
Iwoke to pale morningsunlight streaming through the sheer curtains into my room and painting the canopy above me in a myriad of brilliant colors. I turned onto my side, placing my palm across Nikkos’s heart. It still beat, albeit not as strong as I would’ve liked. And he reeked of the foul medicine the nurses had put on his wound. The smell was so strong, it permeated everything—his skin, the sheets, the air.
Nikkos,I called to him through thought.
No answer.
Nikkos!I called again, imagining my voice ricocheting through his mind like a gong.
Still, nothing.
Nikkos, my love.I tried a soothing voice this time, infusing a bit of my siren’s call.It’s me, Shirina, your mate. Please wake.
I gasped when I thought I saw movement beneath his eyelids and his breathing became slightly erratic. His heart rate quickened, too. Was he hearing me?
I frowned when his heart rate slowed. What was wrong with him? That green witch couldn’t come fast enough. If only Tari was with us. She’d heal him in a matter of minutes. After all, our father had said she’d brought back Prince Helian from the dead.
I turned over when I felt movement behind me. Aurora clutched both of her dolls to her chest while looking at me through sleepy eyes.
I brushed a strand of hair behind her ear. “Good morning, darling. Sleep well?”
She slowly nodded. “Is Uncle Nikkos dead?”
I blinked back tears. “No, sweetheart.”Not yet,I thought to myself, though I dared not voice it aloud.
Ember stretched beside her sister before sitting up, dropping her dolls in her lap and rubbing the sleep from her eyes. She motioned toward her dolls. “New Bethamy and Isabeau are hungry.”
Isabeau? Where had I heard that name before?
I slowly sat up, frowning down at Nikkos before turning toward the girls. “Then we’ll have to feed them.”
A rap on the door and then footsteps in the sitting room. Draevyn poked his head inside the bedchamber. “Morning, girls.” He flashed a cheery smile. “Sleep well?”
The girls mumbled something unintelligible.
Hugging my knees to my chest, I declined to answer. How could he expect me to have a good sleep while my mate was literally dying beside me? A team of servants pushing carts and carrying fresh clothes and linens followed Draevyn into the room. It was then I realized I wouldn’t be able to expect privacy. Not that I’d ever had a shred of privacy in my life.
Draevyn went straight to his brother, checking his wound. The gash on his head looked worse as smelly puss oozed from it.
