AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Hook’s eyes were closed, his face slack. I wasn’t sure he could even hear us. Still, I sank down on the floor beside him and pressed a gentle kiss to his lips. His chest hitched for one brief moment, but that was the only sign he gave that he’d felt anything.
Turning my attention back to Leo, I eyed the full length of him slouched in the chair. “Areyouokay?”
He looked at me for several seconds, his expression filled with conflict. “I’ll live.”
“Thank you for getting him out of there. I couldn’t have done it—”
He held up a hand to stop me. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but I didn’t do it for you. Atlas and I have been friends for longer than you’ve been alive. Generations longer. We might not see eye to eye on things all the time, but I wouldn’t have left him there whether you were involved or not.”
As cutting as those words came out, it was a relief to hear them. The last thing I wanted was to come between friends, and I knew some of the earlier tension between them had to do with me. But the other thing, about just how long they’d known each other, was a vivid reminder of how my time in Hook’s life would never meet that measure.
So, I didn’t respond, other than to give him a brief nod.
Lily moved to the kitchen and started a pot of coffee. By the time she brought me a mug, Leo was out cold in the chair.
“I should be telling you to get some rest too,” she whispered.
I took the steaming mug with a grateful smile. “But you know me better than that.”
“Yep. Just like I know you’re going to camp out right there until he wakes up.”
“That’s the plan.” I took a sip of the coffee, hissing as it burned my tongue. “Can’t sleep anyway. Not with everything that’s happened.”
She came back with her own mug and sat down on the coffee table. Then her gaze shifted slowly from Hook to Leo. “He never had a chance with you, did he?”
Guilt slithered through me, hot and embarrassing. “No,” I whispered.
“Did he? Before?” She motioned to Hook.
I took a minute to really think it through before I responded. I would have been lying if I said I wasn’t attracted to Leo physically. The guy looked like a bronze god. He was also sweet and thoughtful and patient. He was everything a womanshouldwant.
But he wasn’t Hook.
My broody pirate had ruined me.
I shook my head, giving her the silent truth.
Reaching up, I took Hook’s hand, lacing our fingers together. He skin had a worrisome ashen tint, but his skin was surprisingly warm. “I wish there was something more I could do,” I said, more to myself than to Lily.
“You have the pendant. You could try using it to help him heal faster.”
Great idea, in theory.
“Except I don’t know how to make it work.” I was pretty sure the thing helped me heal faster after catching my own dagger in my back, but it had done it without any input from me and mostly while I was sleeping.
But hey, it wasn’t like it could do any more damage. Right?
I thought about that long and hard before I slipped the chain over my head. Loosening my grip on his hand, I dropped the small, precious pendant between our palms before squeezing my fingers tight.
“Has he really only been here a day?” I asked.
She smirked over the rim of her coffee cup. “Feels like forever, doesn’t it?”
It really did. “What are we going to do?” I meant it in the grander sense.
How would we capture the shadow? How would we separate it from my brother? What would we do with it then?
And what would happen to Hook, Lily, and Leo if we succeeded in those things?
