He continued staring at me as if I’d sprouted two heads.
“It was her.” I pushed past the growing pain. “One of her draken freed the entombed gods. She sent them and one of her guards to take me. She said it was because she knew there was more to why you’d take a Consort,” I said, and the eather lashed through his eyes. “She was behaving as if she were helping you.”
“That is thelastthing she was doing.” He looked at Bele. “Take Reaver to my quarters. Stay with him. He’ll likely be confused when he wakes.”
“Will do.” Bele bent, but I held onto Reaver’s small body, reluctant to let him go. She looked up at me. “I’ve got him.”
I knew he was okay, but for some reason, I held on.
“You can let him go, Sera.” Nyktos carefully turned my head to his. Pressure clamped down on my chest. “He’s okay. You’re not. Let Bele take care of him so I can take care of you.”
My heart tripped up as my grip on Reaver loosened enough for Bele to gently work an arm under Reaver’s shoulders. Nyktos drew the blanket up, keeping him covered. “Thank you,” I whispered, feeling a little out of it. “Thank you for coming when you did.”
“No need to thank me.” Bele lifted the slumbering youngling in her arms. “I’ve been waiting for ages to get my hands on that bitch.”
I laughed, and it hurt in my jaw, chest, and other places too numerous to count.
A muscle ticked in Nyktos’s jaw as he looked over his shoulder. I saw Saion and Theon. “Keep watch over Veses.”
The gods nodded. Both looked a little ragged around the edges, as if they’d been through battle, and I wondered exactly how many Shades Veses had managed to work into a frenzy.
“Ector?” I called out, sucking in a breath as a sharp ache skated across my ribs. “Is Ector okay?”
Saion nodded. “He will be.”
Relieved, I closed my eyes and leaned back against the chaise. “Ector tried to stop Veses from coming in here,” I shared, vaguely aware of the others leaving. “Why would he do that? He knew better.”
“So did Bele.” Nyktos brushed my hair over my shoulder. “They were willing to take that risk to protect you.”
I opened my eyes. “They could’ve died.”
“They know that.”
“They could still be punished if Kolis or anyone else finds out they went up against a Primal.”
“They know that, too.”
He was on his knees, leaning over my legs. “You’re injured, Sera.”
“Yeah,” I breathed. There was no denying it. “I think a couple of my ribs might be broken.”
Shadows gathered in his cheeks. “I don’t think that’s all,” he said, running his thumb along the corner of my lip. Red smeared the tip when he withdrew his hand. “You’re in a lot of pain.”
“True, but I stabbed her in the eye. It was gross.” I gave him a grimace of a smile. “But worth it.”
His laugh was soft and a little strained. “You’re going to need my blood.”
My heart gave a sluggish lurch, even though I wasn’t surprised to hear that. Because there was a good chance that I was hurt in a far worse way than when the draken had attacked. I didn’t feelrightinside. Like important parts of me weren’t exactly connected right.
“We can’t risk you going into another stasis, Sera. You may not wake up,” he said, sensing my hesitation. “I will leave immediately afterward. You don’t have to worry about how my blood will affect you.”
“It’s not that.”
A look of doubt crept into Nyktos’s features as I lifted a strangely weak arm and touched the hand that rested on the floor beside my hip. The charge of energy was faint. “Your skin is icy. As cold as it was before.” The why suddenly occurred to me, and my chest twisted. “It was…her feeding from you, wasn’t it? That’s why your skin is so cold.”
His features tensed. “I told you why my skin is cold. I’m Death.”
Hehadtold me that, but that hadn’t really made that much sense to me.