It was not natural to die and come back so many times. The last time was the worst. We actually thought we had lost him for good. Twelve minutes he was dead for. For twelve minutes, he hung from the rafters unmoving. I had all the cameras pulled down that week. When I checked the footage, it sickened me. I couldn’t unsee it. Kalen on that damn tablet wondering why she’d never opened his message, staring at the screen when he tossed it aside. He spent weeks begging her to come back or let him know she was okay.
I didn’t see the rope around his neck until he jumped off the staircase.
It was the last class of the day. He had planned it perfectly. He knew no one was in the castle. He knew we wouldn’t get back in time. Luckily, Lycus went back, feeling sick. Before he walked into the castle, Kalen was dead, and Lycus found him hanging from the second floor. He cut him down and performed CPR until Tobias got back. We all felt his bond sever, yet Tobias didn’t stop. He kept feeding his blood to Kalen, and by some miracle, his heart started up, and Tobias’s blood healed his broken neck. Since then, for the most part, Kalen was fine until he wasn’t.
We finally got him to a good place recently, and then she called on us. Kalen had never been happier until we had to remind him she could leave again, not to get his hopes up.
Lycus crawled on the bed beside him before tucking his arm over him.
I shouldn’t have taken his magic; it always made him worse. I couldn’t believe I was stupid enough to take it from him, blinded by my anger with Aleera.
I moved toward the bed and sighed. “Come here,” I told him, but he didn’t budge, just stared off blankly.
“You wanted to heal her?” I asked him, and Kalen nodded.
“Are you angry at Lycus because he wouldn’t?”
“He also yelled at her,” Kalen mumbled.
“She did the wrong thing,” I told him.
“She didn’t understand.”
“Because she didn’t ask. She didn’t want us, Kalen,” I told him. Kalen shook his head.
“If you let me speak to her, I can prove it. We can get her back,” Kalen said, looking at me. It was too dangerous, and I knew he wouldn’t get the answers he was hoping for. Tobias tried to muffle his anger and block Kalen from feeling it.
She destroyed all of us. One woman and she nearly killed all of us. She destroyed what we could have been.
“I can’t let you do that. You know why, Kalen,” I told him.
“If I heal her?” I asked him before gritting my teeth. I hated the idea of doing such a thing but if it meant it would bring his mood up, I would. I couldn’t risk him seeking her out.
“Can I sleep in there with her? Or maybe she could come in here? I will sleep on the floor with her.” Tobias growled at his words, and I didn’t miss the flicker of anger in Lycus’s eyes.
“No, I am still angry I caught you in there last night,” Tobias scolded him. I chewed my lip. Kalen could be child-like, crazed, insane. So many different sides to him, and he had too many triggers.
“She must be lonely,” Kalen mumbled, looking at me like I would back him up, and usually I would, but not when his safety was at risk.
“I will heal her, but you will remain here with us,” I told him.
Chapter 18
Aleera
Iwas sitting huddled underthe blankets trying to get warm. The room was freezing since someone had opened a window, and the bloody thing was jammed open. I had asked Tobias if he could shut it. He even watched me struggle with the damn thing as I tried to pull it closed, giving up when it hurt too much to stand. So I went and climbed into bed, wrapping the blankets around me like a cocoon.
He said not one word, placed my food in the room, and left. I was starving, and I was pretty sure I had inhaled my food without tasting it. I was that hungry from barely eating all day and starting to feel shaky.
Darius walked in, and I was too cold to be scared. Freezing as the frosty night air seeped into the room and my aching bones. Darius walked over, gripping the handle on the window and yanking it shut. I watched his every movement carefully, wondering what he wanted now. Was he here because he didn’t get to punish me earlier for skipping classes? I didn’t doubt it. He hated me.They all hated me, and didn’t believe running was an acceptable excuse, as if they wouldn’t have done the same.
Yet despite me hating him too, I also couldn’t deny the bond. The bond made me crave them. My entire body told me I needed them even if I didn’t want them, and I hated myself for it. Yet, I also longed for interaction after so much solitude, longed for touch and to feel some resemblance of normality. I wanted to rest without having to look over my damn shoulder. I wanted for once to feel wanted.
I haven’t had any of that since nana died. I missed my nana terribly. When she was alive, I had somewhere to call home before I was tossed into the care of the Fae Authorities and institutionalized at boarding school with nothing left but memories of what I once had and lost.
Darius’s entire body was tense as he moved toward me. I was too cold to care what he did to me at this point. I watched as flames spurted from his fingertips and formed a sphere in his hand. Darius then tossed it at the small fireplace; the wood instantly caught alight. The flames erupted up the chimney before dying down and crackling loudly.
Darius’s hands were fisted at his sides as he approached the bed. I could no longer blame the cold for all my shaking as his intimidating frame stood over me. It made it more obvious how easy it would be for him to hurt or end me. His lips turned up as he snarled down at me.