AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Salem drops to her knees beside me.
“Run, Salem,” I choke out, but she shakes her head.
“He’s not moving. I think he landed on his sword.” She reaches for me, but I scramble away, nearly vomiting from the pain.
Black spots dance before my eyes as I avoid her touch. “No. The baby,” I say, tasting blood.
“I have to, Astrid. You’ll die.”
“Then I’ll die. But your baby won’t.”
Salem has to take the injury on herself to heal me. With where I’m hurt, there is no way her baby would survive.
Noise to our left has Salem’s head whipping up. “Oh God, help her!” she screams.
Blinking, I turn my head and find Oz’s horrified gaze looking down at me. “Oh Jesus, Astrid.” He rips my jacket open and curses before whipping his shirt off and pressing it down on my stomach.
I scream at the pain, everything going black as I hear Oz yelling for a medic. Everything that happens next is all a blur of noise and hands touching me as I feel myself drifting.
When the blackness fades, I turn my head and look at the man lying motionless on the ground. When he jolts, rolling closer to me, I flinch, and it takes me a second to realize someone kicked him. But that’s not what has me staring in shock. It’s the familiar face.
“Penn,” I gasp.
Salem, who is being restrained by Greg, turns to look at the fallen man. She looks back at me, tears rolling down her cheeks. “What?”
“It’s Penn.”
She looks at the man again before shaking her head and sobbing. “That’s not Penn, Astrid. I’ve never seen that man before in my life.”
She disappears from my sight when Jagger appears in front of me, his face wet with tears as he wipes my face with a shaky hand.
“It was all a trick.” I whimper. And that’s when I finally give in to the pain and pass out.
* * *
When I wake up, the pain is so intense that I almost wish I hadn’t. I hear the sound of arguing and wonder where I am and what’s happened.
“Slade,” I murmur, but even my lips hurt, so I don’t say anything else.
“Sir, I’m telling you right now that if you don’t leave, I’m calling security.”
“Go ahead. I fucking dare you,” I hear him snarl before I let the darkness take me away again.
The next time I wake, the pain is still there, but at least I remember what happened. I manage to open my eyes and find Jagger and Slade sitting beside me, talking quietly to each other.
“Hi,” I whisper.
You would have thought I screamed it at the top of my lungs with how high they both jump.
“Holy shit, Astrid.” Jagger leans over and kisses me on the forehead. Slade grabs my hand and holds it tightly, kissing the back of it.
“What happened? How long have I been here?”
“Since yesterday. What do you remember?”
“Everything, I think. I just don’t know what happened after I passed out. Salem?”
“She’s fine. Shaken up, but physically she’s fine. Oz, Greg, and Wilder have flown back home with her.”
