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Oh dear. There was a lot of guilt there, and I didn’t need our bond to feel the pain pouring openly through our connection.
“Hey,” I murmured, tilting my head up so my lips just barely brushed his chin. “You did what you needed to do. If you hadn’t run away to become Captain Reed, I probably wouldn’t be here. Fort Canid would’ve fallen.”
“You really think so?”
“I do. But why is Princess Seraphina treated differently?”
Kai’s jaw tensed, and he didn’t answer right away. When he finally did, his tone was so weary.
“Let’s talk about it another time. You’ll see soon enough.”
“All right, then,” I murmured, feeling no need to push him. The conversation did fall off, but it was nice to quietly sit there with him.
I could’ve stayed like that through the night, falling asleep propped up against him. But while I’d been weak enough to give into the initial cuddling, I needed to draw a line.
“Ten minutes are up,” I said what must have at least been twenty minutes later.
“Right you are.” I expected Kai to weasel more time together, but instead he just pressed a kiss to the top of my head, then helped me stand, following soon after me.
“Good night,” he murmured, looking at me with one of those expressions that just meant somuch.
“Good night,” I said.
With that, I walked him to the door, making sure to close it firmly behind him and lock it—not to keep him out, but to ensure no one slipped into my quarters while I was unconscious.
I’d mostly just sat on my ass all day but was still pretty exhausted, and it wasn’t like I was going to get a full night’s sleep before we headed out again. So, with a quick wash of my face, I went through an abbreviated version of my pre-bed routine, then changed into my pajamas and slipped under the covers.
I missed having Kai behind me as I drifted off, his strong arms wrapped around me. Nevertheless, I managed to sink into a dreamless sleep.
But that little break from the world didn’t last long. As soon as I closed my eyes, I was opening them again, a shrill beeping and pounding on the door rousing me.
“Hrlopfff?” I muttered, looking around blearily. Any inertia instantly evaporated when I realized my room was unbearably hot and filled with smoke. I couldn’t figure outwhy, my mind sluggish, until it finally clicked that my room was quiteliterally on fire.
My lungs burned, a crackling in my chest as I shot up in my bed. I swayed one way and then the other before losing my balance and collapsing back into the sheets.
I was beginning to think I’d inhaled a lot more smoke and fumes than was healthy for anyone, even a shifter.
I needed to get out, yet my limbs felt like they weighed about a thousand pounds. I wanted to get out of bed and run out the door, then shift and throw myself out the window. Maybe even cast a spell to protect myself from the blaze. But I couldn’t get myself to do much other than hazily look at the door.
Dammit, why did I have to lock it? What I’d done for protection had quickly turned into the mechanism of my demise. I could still hear pounding on the other side, but it was thick and enchanted, meant to resist the strength of shifters and other overpowered cryptids.
Just as my eyelids were about to flutter closed again, the door burst open, a large shape bursting through the thick smoke. I watched, as if I wasn’t in my body, and it rushed to me before I was swept up into strong, familiar arms.
“Ayla!”
It was Kai. Itwouldbe Kai. I didn’t know why I was surprised, and yet I was, the wheels of my mind barely catching up when he carried me out of the burning room.
I expected relief and cool air when we got into the hallway but, no, it turned out that was on fire, too. Had Kai stood out there in the inferno, nearly consumed by flames while he tried to beat my door down?
We were still in danger, but I was just so impressed with Kai. He was willing to risk everything to make sure I was safe.
That admiration for him grew as we approached the stairwell, only for it to collapse in a shower of sparks and hungry, beseeching flames. He stumbled back, the both of us nearly toppling over, but he caught his footing and turned, running straight for the other end of the hall. I didn’t think there was a stairwell there, but that didn’t even matter. He launched himself fully out of the window, sending us sailing into the cool, early morning air.
Once the irritant was out of my lungs, my shifter healing kicked into gear. My senses returned before we even landed, and coughs wracked my small frame. As soon as we were on the ground, Kai was roughly clapping my back, helping me expectorate all the irritants I’d inhaled.
“Officer Khan! Have you seen Officer Khan?”
My ears were still ringing, and my voice hadn’t come back when Oren ran up to us, covered with soot, looking more alarmed than I’d ever seen him. I looked to the building we’d just been in.
