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My voice cracked, a fresh wave of tears burning my eyes. I flicked them away, looking into Harvey's black eyes. "Please."
His chest shook under my hand, and my shoulders slumped. I didn't know how to get through to him, and when all he could do was growl, we could hardly have a conversation. I swallowed, and tasted tears.
His chest jumped, and I jolted backwards when magic hit me hard enough to make me falter. I blinked back tears until I could see—and honestly wished I hadn't. Harvey in his beast form was impressive and nightmarish, beautiful in a dark, fatal way. Harvey in his demon form was devastatingly sexy, especially when his lips curled in a smirk or he threw his head back and laughed. Harvey halfway between the two? Horrific. He had a man's forehead and messy russet hair, a wolfish black snout, and a pair of sultry lips right below it.
He looked like a failed science experiment, but I loved him and I'd never speak a word about it.
"I'm here," he breathed, his voice gravelly and deep. He reached for me with a hand still tipped in vicious claws. "I'm here, Haley."
I rushed across the space between us, grabbing his face in my hands and brushing my lips to his in the most gentle kiss I could manage when I was so frantic.
"Can you heal him?Please.I know he's a bastard but—"
"He's my brother," Harvey grunted, squeezing my hip and guiding me aside. "Of course I'll heal him."
My bottom lip weakened. I pressed my hand to my mouth as Harvey knelt, wobbling I just-shifted legs but managing not to faceplant the ground.1
"How much do you have left?" Kai asked, the bite in his tone telling me he thought we should leave Wynvail to die.
"Enough," Harvey replied in a grunt, setting his hands to the mess of Wynvail's throat. I didn't know how he was still alive; he should be dead. But I felt him weakly through the bond, and I still had hooks buried in his soul, refusing to let him fade away. I couldn't feel his emotions like usual, couldn't really sense him beyond a faint flutter, little more than a heartbeat. My face crumpled.
Em steadied Harvey when he wavered, but he set his jaw, kept his narrowed stare on Wynvail's wan face, and didn't take his hands off his brother until the wound knit back together.
"He might have lost too much blood," Emlyn said gently, his eyes on me. He wasn't sure how I'd react if Wynvail died. Neither was I.
I walked to where they both knelt, my legs less than steady, and rested my hand on Harvey's shoulder in silent thanks. He covered my hand with his, squeezing with reassurance that made my breathing skip.
My eyes burned. What if Em was right, and it was too late? There was so much blood on the ground, and even more in the water that had sucked away. Yet more coated me like a second skin. I swallowed the golf ball in my throat, my whole body shaky.
Come on, Wynvail.
"Don't be a stubborn bastard," I rasped, trying to glare at his slack face. His eyelids were closed, long lashes casting shadows on his cheeks. I couldn’t summon even a hint of a glare. "We went to all this trouble to save your evil ass; you don't get to die."
My hand shook under Harvey's. Fuck, he was really dead, wasn't he?
I pulled frantically on his soul, a brutal, ruthless command to return. I wasn't sure his soul was even fluttering anymore. Had he gone still?
"There's … something strange about him," Harvey murmured, almost hesitantly. "My magic didn't react to his injury like it normally would. It was absorbedintohim."
"What does that mean?" Emlyn asked quietly, blue eyes still heavy on me.
I swallowed, not taking my stare from Wynvail for a second. He looked so much younger, so much more fragile like this. No arrogance and wickedness on his face, no glare or sneer. He just looked … normal. A little broken.
I didn't like to think about the emotions I sensed in his soul most often, bitterness and stress, but there must have been a reason for them. Who was Wynvail, really? If Cassander Locke had done such unspeakable things to Wane and Harvey, what had he done to Wynvail? I should have asked him, should have tried to understand him instead of threatening to murder him all this time.
"Come on, asshole. If you break my girl, I'll come to the afterlife and strangle you back to life," Kai snarled, crouching to shove Wynvail's shoulder.
I flinched when a hand snapped up and grabbed Kai's wrist, and for a moment I didn't realise that bronze hand was Wynvail's.
"You can try," he replied, hoarse and low andmiraculous."I'd win you in a fight, Virex."
"In your fucking dreams," Kai snarled, and snatched his wrist free with little to no effort.
"You fuckingbastard,"I yelled, my chest crumpled, my heart wrecked. A sob made me choke on my next breath, but I glared. "You total, fucking—"
"Will you kill me if I try to hug her?" Wynvail rasped.
"Yes,"Em, Kai, and Harvey replied in the same threatening tone.
