The sensation radiates through my flesh. If the healing energy he conjured before was a stream, this is a river, coursing through every crack and gash that needs to be knit together.
The other tentacle, the one not wrapped around my belly, veers off toward… a nearby sapling. The tip curls around the thin trunk.
Its branches are sagging, the whole tree bowing toward the ground as its bark darkens as if overtaken by rot.
Dominic must notice my gaze. “The energy has to come from somewhere. It all balances out one way or another.”
Oh. The flowers and weeds I saw him picking before—he was using them for healing energy.
As I bring my attention back to him, the arc of the tentacles I can see arcing over his shouldersexpands. Just a little, maybe half an inch, but unmistakable. Like they’re pulling farther out of his skin.
“They’re growing,” I mumble.
Dom lets out a ragged chuckle. “They do that. When I use my power.”
Understanding hits me like a smack across the face. Oh, shit. “That’s why you didn’t want to— You don’t have to. You don’t—”
His other hand closes around mine—gently so that he doesn’t provoke fresh pains in the delicate joints there. “It’s fine, Riva. You need this. I’mgladI can do it.” His voice dips. “I’m glad you’re still with us.”
I need this… because of the train. That final memory roars up to the surface, and I wince instinctively as if I’m feeling the impact all over again.
Footsteps stomp closer. “Is she okay? Don’t do anything that could hurt her.”
“I know,” Dominic says, almost a growl, as my gaze flicks from him to the other man now standing within my limited view.
Jacob stares down at me, his expression tense, his normally cold eyes blazing as if they’ve been lit with blue flames. His hands are clenched at his sides, the tendons standing out in his arms.
I jerk my gaze away with a lurch of my heart that sends a new ache through my chest. I don’t want… to see him, speak to him, deal with any more of his bullshit.
Jacob lets out a grunt of frustration, and then there’s a groaning sound, like a weakening branch pushed by the wind. Somewhere beyond my field of vision, Andreas swears with a rustle of footsteps over the grass.
“You can’t keep doing that. Calm the fuck down.”
“How am I supposed to calm down when she—”
Another set of footsteps thumps toward us from farther away, bringing Zian’s breathless voice with them. “I brought three water bottles—totally full.” He stops with a hitch. “Is she awake?”
I’m not sure I want to see or speak to Zian either. I close my eyes again, descending into the painful darkness of my body.
“Give one to Dom,” Andreas is saying. “He’s wearing himself ragged. Maybe Riva should have some too.”
Dominic speaks in an uncertain tone. “I don’t know if her stomach and… everything that connects to it are fully recovered. She was hit pretty hard all the way down her side.”
Jacob pipes up next, with an edge that rankles me. “Then get on with healing the rest of it.”
“He’s doing his best,” Andreas snaps. “Why don’t you find something more useful to do than tearing up trees?”
At a whisper of fabric and a shift in the air, I know Andreas has knelt at my other side, across from Dominic. Idefinitelydon’t want to look at him—don’t want to think about the vulnerability and passion I offered him when his only goal was to unravel me.
I can’t do this anymore. I don’t wish I’d embraced the train head on, beyond repair, but that one fact hasn’t changed.
If I stay with my guys any longer, either they’ll tear me apart or I’ll do the same to them. Maybe both.
They don’t want me. What’s the point in sticking around anyway?
Dominic’s hand against my sternum goes abruptly limp. The current of warmth fades away, but I realize I’m not half as achy as I was when I first woke up. I don’t feel all that much worse than I have on average over the past several days, with Jacob’s literal venom eating away at me.
As if he’s sensed that thought, Dom brushes his fingers over my forehead, swiping stray strands of hair away from my eyes. “I drew all the poison out of you too. You won’t have to deal with that anymore.”