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Heart jumping into her throat, Blair collapsed on her knees beside Kaien. His handsome features were utterly slack beneath the crimson mask of his own blood.
In that moment, something changed. The depth and potency of her affection for Kaien rose with such ferocity that she sagged under the impact, all at once realizing that the man who lay before her meant so much more than she’d understood.
Kaien had done this forher. He’d gone to confront Torrin because she’d been worried for another man, the fledgling he’d seen her snuggling with and fretting over repeatedly in the days since their bond had begun.
Kaien had risked his life because he thought Blair was ambivalent to him.
Blair focused back on Lucius and Drake’s words about Kaien just a few hours earlier:He’ll take greater and greater risks before he eventually succumbs to the finality of death. Rejected mates don’t last longer than a month at most.
Kaien had gone to his death because he thought she didn’t care for him—and with good reason. She’d rejected him outright only today, telling him once more that she’d never complete the mating bond with him, and giving him no reason to see otherwise.
Blair had to right this terrible wrong.
“How do we help him?” she whimpered, her hands fisting in Kaien’s shirt, the material stained with damp splatters of crimson.
Electricity jolted through the air a moment later, Nina’s concentration amping up while her hands remained locked on either side of Kaien’s pale face.
“I’ve asked Nero to bring his healer, Luna.” Her ice blue eyes jumped to Mere’s face. “Get Willow!”
Pale but acquiescent, Mere nodded before disappearing. Celeste and Xavier moved closer in concern, but it was the latter who spoke. “I’ll fetch Tschaun.”
He was gone a heartbeat later. Into the silence of the room, Blair trembled, listening for the barely discernible sound of Kaien’s inhale. “How did he get silver poisoning so quickly?”
“He must have inhaled it,” Nina replied. “He bears no other injuries.”
All she could do was sit by Kaien’s side. “This is my fault.”
“How is it your fault?” Nina’s words were hollow, but her thumbs delicately traced a path over Kaien’s cheekbones, her affection for her twin nothing short than blindingly apparent.
“I told him I didn’t want to finalize the bond with him.” Tears pricked in Blair’s eyes, the fervor of her emotions finally catching up with her and spilling onto her cheeks. “I felt the depth of his despair, Nina. How devastated he was. He must have believed that taking Torrin out of the picture would please me somehow. Make me safe. I don’t know—I just—I can’t lose him.”
The other woman was quiet, and for a fleeting moment, Blair thought her sire would agree that Kaien’s predicament was her fault. But Nina shook her head, the brunette hair that framed her features tousling slightly.
“Whatever happens, Blair, this wasn’t your fault. Kaien is no youngling to be easily swayed.”
A fissure of air signaled the arrival of additional Raeths only seconds later. Before Blair could turn to assess those who’d entered the space, a woman appeared at her side, a vibrant swath of scarlet red hair tumbling over her shoulder.
Luna, the healer.
The woman’s delicate hands rested possessively against the masculine panes of Kaien’s chest, the familiarity between them clear. Manicured fingertips gently caressed his skin through his shirt for a moment longer before a feminine whisper sounded.
“Silver?”
Nina nodded once, earning a sharp inhale from the red-haired woman who’d dared touch Blair’s unconscious mate. Energy pulsed through the air seconds later, a barrage of electricity beating against Kaien’s too-still chest.
Blair’s eyes shuttered. Every impulse within her was screaming, hating the helplessness associated with Kaien’s condition. The familiar way Luna touched the wounded man spoke to a shared history between them, but Blair couldn’t concentrate on that now.
All she could do was merely watch as the healer’s power pulsed into her mate who lay motionless before them. Moments later, Mere and Willow appeared, the female vampire a degreed physician who rushed to Kaien’s side.
“He inhaled microscopic silver fragments—” Luna shook her head, “—and it’s burned its way through his bloodstream. Kaien will come back, but we’re lucky we caught it before it did permanent damage.”
Xavier and a Raeth male who she presumed to be Tschaun teleported in beside them seconds later. The latter party joined the two women who crouched on the floor beside Kaien, adding his own healing energy to the motionless man.
“How did he come to be like this, Nina?”
Nero’s deep voice breached the morbid quiet that’d settled around them, startling Blair from her thoughts. In her fixation with Luna’s efforts, she’d not even sensed Nero’s presence nor registered the danger behind it.
“He went to confront Torrin.” Nina caught the other sovereign’s eyes, an indecipherable understanding passing between them. “Torrin must have an offensive weapon that pollutes the air with traces of silver.”
