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“Dark magic, Alpha. Not through the usual channels, to be sure.”
I scowled, and Elix’s frown deepened. She turned to Cirilla. “Can you give us a few minutes alone, please?”
Cirilla looked at me, and I nodded my approval, waving the healer and guards out as well. “But I will want a word with you, Llyodiver,” I warned the head of the Royal Guards. “To discuss how that attacker managed to get in here.”
Llyodiver hung his head in shame but nodded. “Yes, Alpha.”
We waited until everyone had cleared out, and Elix perched nervously on the edge of the bed, her face fraught with concern. “Tell me honestly how you’re feeling.”
“I’m honestly fine,” I insisted. “I’m healing. I can tell.”
“I don’t know what happened,” she admitted.
“You should have just let me handle it,” I told her. “I wouldn’t have let anything happen, you know?”
Dropping her head shamefully, she replied, “I wasn’t thinking. I just reacted. I saw him coming at you, and I just…”
Reaching for her hand, I found it surprisingly cold. “No harm was done.”
“This time,” she agreed. “But what about next time?”
This time, I did sit up when I tried. I was recharging fast. My other hand touched her face. “That’s exactly why you’re going through training, Elix. You need to get control of your powers.”
“My powers are a danger! I could have killed you, too! I killed him!”
She choked on her last words, and I realized this was the first time she had ever taken a life. My hand cupped her cheek. “I know you’re having a hard time with all of this, but you’re not a danger. You’re powerful. There’s a difference.”
“Did you hear what I said? I killed someone! And I narrowly missed killing you!”
I offered her a wry smile. “You’re going to have to do better than that if you want to kill me. I don’t go down so easily.”
“How can you be so flippant about this, Jace?” She shrugged me off and stood, causing my smile to fade. “This is serious!”
“You’re overwhelmed,” I sighed, falling back against the bed. “And that’s understandable. But when the dust settles, you’ll see that you did a good thing today. You saved me—even though I would have handled it just fine.”
“That’s not the point! Next time, I could hurt an innocent!”
“You’re really overthinking this,” I told her firmly. “If you keep up with your training, you won’t need to worry about it, because you’ll have a proper handle on it.”
She stared at me dubiously. She wasn’t buying into my reassurances.
“Okay, then what do you want to do? Put everything on hold?” I suggested. “Forget about the training and the bloodwork?”
She balked at that. “No…”
“Well, those are our options, aren’t they?”
She stared at me, a mixture of confusion and worry in her eyes. Swallowing, she padded back toward the bedside. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be unleashing all this on you while you’re laid up. Are you hungry? What can I get you?”
“Come and lie with me,” I ordered her, and she did as I requested, sliding up along my body. “Everything is going to work out. You’ll see.”
Without answering, she buried her face in my neck, and together, our breathing evened, our hands locking over my chest. I wasn’t sure what to say to placate her, never having been in this situation before, but I truly wasn’t worried about the future with her powers, even if Elix was.
My hand reached up to stroke her hair lovingly, and she settled against me, but not with the same ease as she usually did. “I promise everything will be fine, Elix.”
“Okay,” she agreed without any conviction, and I stifled a sigh. Only time would show her that I was speaking the truth. Until then, I couldn’t do anything but hold her and be by her side as she honed her incredible abilities.
The exhaustion of my plight began to take hold again, and I allowed the tiredness to overtake me once more, secure with Elix in my arms, my guards stationed outside the doors. Whoever had attacked would not try again tonight, not when everyone was on high alert. I was free to heal up, which I would do in the next few hours for certain.
