Chapter 30
Iris
“Any news, Adrianna?” Mommy asks her pretty friend.
She’s got silky blond hair and ocean-blue eyes, but she looks different when she steps outside our house—all wrinkly—as if she’s an old lady.
Mommy said it’s magic; she glamours her appearance because she is in danger.
She also doesn’t like kids or people. That’s why Mommy asks me to stay in my room whenever she visits.
I don’t want to make her mad, but I was playing hide and seek with my new transparent friend before she arrived and I got stuck in the cupboard.
“Yeah. Though, you’re not gonna like it.
Rhett brought another group from Faerie.
He said there are rumors that King Orion had the last oracle executed.
She apparently had a vision he would lose the war, and let’s just say he wasn’t thrilled about that.
He probably thinks if the oracle is dead, the prophecy won’t come true.
Too bad prophecies don’t work that way.”
“Fuck. She was our last hope. What are we going to do?”
I inhale sharply at the bad word. Mommy never uses those around me. Well, she said it once when she stubbed her toe on the coffee table. But it was only because she was in pain.
“We have to wait for another one to be born, I guess.”
Mommy lets out a hollow laugh. “What if that never happens? Iris’s powers are growing by the day, and it’s hard keeping her hidden as is.”
“What did that seraph tell you? I don’t get why he can’t tell you the prophecy.”
“Because he’s bound by divine oath. They all are. He only paid us a visit to warn us of its existence.”
“C’mon, angel, snap out of it.”
Kaiden?
The fogginess finally dissipates. However, the feeling that my brain is being pierced by an icepick doesn’t.
I grind my teeth hard to stop my dinner from making a reappearance as everything comes back in horrible flashes.
A boom. Smashed glass. Voidstalkers. Ichor painting the walls.
Talons sinking into me like a hot knife through butter.
Red-hot pain. And Ms. Robbins. Oh God, Ms. Robbins.
When the room comes into focus, I realize I’m holding Adrianna’s lifeless body to my chest, rocking back and forth while tears stream mercilessly down my face.
The demons are nothing more than dried-up husks lying on the floor.
There’s so much blood. I’m covered in it. It not only stains my skin, but it digs deep through every layer until it reaches the very essence of my soul.
Ms. Robbins is gone.
My mother’s friend is dead.
And it’s all my fault.
Sobbing, I try to wipe the crimson guilt off, but I only make it worse. “Take it off! Take it off! TAKE IT OFF!” There’s not enough air left in the atmosphere as my lungs fold in two, battling for tiny scraps.
Strong arms lift my trembling body. “Shh, I got you.” It’s all a blur as I’m carried inside my apartment.
“You have to breathe. In and out. Good. That’s my girl.
” When he enters the bathroom, he maneuvers me with my legs wrapped around his middle.
It’s a tight fit in the small walk-in shower, but he somehow manages to turn us around so I’m facing the pounding water.
When it hits my shoulders and trickles down my back, I realize why: my back is shredded.
At least, that’s how it feels—as if someone took a cheese grater to it.
I bite the inside of my cheek hard to stop the scream bubbling up my throat from getting out.
“I’m so sorry,” he murmurs in the shell of my ear as he strokes my hair. “I already called Malik. He’s on his way.”
I don’t know how much time passes while Kaiden holds me to his chest, but his intoxicating scent wraps around me like a warm blanket.
We are immersed once again in our little bubble where nothing and no one can touch us.
Thump. Thump. Thump. My breathing finally slows down as I concentrate on Kaiden’s steady heartbeat.
His presence equally tethers me to reality and soothes something deep within me.
There’s a knock on the door. “Kaiden?”
“Just a second,” he replies to Malik. “We’ll get out, and then Malik’s going to heal you, okay?” he says softly.
My grip on Kaiden’s neck tightens in panic. “No! I—I can’t—no. P-please. I can still feel the blood. It’s everywhere.”
His gentle hand wraps around my jaw, and fresh tears blur my vision. “Okay, we’ll stay in here. Malik?”
“Yeah?”
“Come in.”
“I hope you’re not naked because seeing your dick wasn’t in my plans for the day.
” All the mirth in his tone vanishes the moment he opens the door, and his feline hazel eyes land on my back.
He lets out a sharp curse before his legs eat up the small space in two long strides.
“Hey, sweets! I see you’ve got yourself in some more trouble.
I’m surprised it took you this long. You know, women are usually happy to see me, but they’re not quite as wet as you. At least, not with their clothes on.”
The joke helps, and I let out a small snort.
“Shut the fuck up and heal her. She’s in pain,” Kaiden growls.
Malik purses his lips as his palm settles on top of my chest. “Jeez. It’s not my fault your bedside manner is nonexistent.
I’m just trying to lighten the mood.” His magic envelops me like a thick fog.
Skin tissue pieces itself together until there’s no more pain—at least physically.
Now that my back is no longer screaming, I can draw my first breath without it catching fire.
“Thanks,” I say when the inky fog dissipates.
He winks at me. “Anytime. Well, if you guys don’t need me anymore, I’m going to help Logan clean up in the other apartment.”
“Wait!”
Malik looks back over his shoulder.
“Ms. Rob—the fae woman is—was my neighbor. We need to have a proper burial for her.”
He only nods in understanding before leaving the bathroom and closing the door at his back.
“How are you feeling?” Kaiden asks after a few moments.
“My back doesn’t hurt anymore…” But my heart does. The unspoken words hang heavy in the air. However, I don’t have to voice them for him to understand.
Obsidian eyes search mine. They bulldoze through all the barriers I erected around myself as if they’re made of nothing more than papier maché. “Now that the lacerations are healed, I can wash you properly. Or I can let you do it yourself. Just tell me what you need.”
I’ll surely regret this tomorrow, but I’m not strong enough to push him away. Somehow, it feels as if I’ve lost my mother all over again. Or, at least, a part of her. And I can’t face that on my own. “No. Don’t leave me alone. I need you.”
“I’ll have to let you down and undress you. Is that okay?”
“Yeah,” I whisper.
Kaiden peels the blood-soaked clothes off my body before he starts washing me slowly, as if I’m the most precious thing in the world.
And even if the usual electricity charges in the air between us, there’s no sexual tension—only tenderness.
I’ve never felt more cherished than when Kaiden takes care of me.
It blurs the stark line I have drawn between us.
Because as hard as it is to admit, my feelings for him only grow instead of wilt.
And that mask of indifference I so desperately cling to whenever he’s near? It’s nowhere in sight tonight.
Twenty minutes later, Kaiden carries me to my bedroom and sits me on top of my bed. I clear my throat. “The clothes you left here are still in my closet if you want to change.”
The corner of his full lips lifts in that sexy, infuriating way that makes my blood pressure go through the roof. “I’m surprised you didn’t burn them.”
“Not gonna lie, I did think about it more than once,” I mutter.
“Will you be okay if I leave you for a few minutes so I can take a shower, too?”
I nod, and he strides to the closet to rifle through the drawer I gave him when he was still my shadow.
Picking up a pair of his usual black jeans and tee, he disappears through the bathroom door, his sopping clothes leaving a trail of water behind.
As much as I try not to think about tonight’s events, they replay in gory details the moment I close my eyes.
I don’t even realize I’m crying again until the bed dips under Kaiden’s weight.
He thumbs the tears gently as he frames the side of my face.
“Did you know Ms. Robbins was fae?” I ask. “Please don’t lie.”
“I had no idea.”
The glint in his eyes tells me he’s being honest, though given everything that happened between us, I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to trust what he says entirely.
“I can’t believe she’s dead. I was bringing her groceries.
I was supposed to do that this morning, but I spent all day at Sam’s.
” I shake my head in disbelief. “I’ve never seen anything like that before.
It was fucking crazy. Souldrakes threw voidstalkers through the balcony door.
They cornered me until the souldrakes could snatch me through the gaping hole in the wall.
If I had just come home first and waited until the next day to bring her the groceries, they would have attacked me in my apartment. I had all my weapons here—”
“Stop blaming yourself, Iris. It’s not your fault.”
I suck in a serrated breath. “Don’t say that. Those demons were there for me.”
“They couldn’t have attacked you in your apartment. That’s why they came for you there.”
My eyebrows furrow. “What? Why?”
“I asked Malik to put the same wards I have on my building on your place. He finished the night you and Sam were at Sin. Unfortunately, he couldn’t do every apartment in the building because it takes a lot of time, and he would have needed access to all of them.
It took him over a year to finish placing the wards on my building. ”
The fact that he didn’t share this information before, when I told him I wanted to go home while he searched Hell for Adramelech doesn’t escape me.
However, he was right, it was safer for me there.
Of course, I would never admit that. “So, um, why are you here? How did you know I was in danger again?”
He tilts his head. “Seriously? Carter was patrolling the perimeter; it’s hard not to notice demons flying out of your neighbor’s window. I’m sorry it took me so long to get to you.”
“It’s okay. It all happened in under ten minutes…I think. I kind of blacked out, and I don’t remember what happened until I woke up with um,” I sniff, “Ms. Robbi—Adrianna in, um, in my arms. Her real name was Adrianna.”
He takes my shaky hands in his warm ones. I don’t pull away. In fact, I’m barely restraining myself from crawling into his lap. Nibbling on my lower lip, I deliberate if I should tell him the rest, too.
“So, um, I guess I can also rot demons, now. Too bad I don’t remember how I did it. Was I going ballistic when you popped into the room?”
“No, you were already on the floor, but you were out of it.”
Pulling back, I make my decision. Maybe he can help me find Rhett.
And when we know what the prophecy says, we’ll finally part ways because every time he swoops in to save or take care of me, I feel my resolve chipping away as though it’s nothing more than cheap paint.
As hard as I try to be the granite rock that stops the crashing waves, I’m afraid I’m nothing more than soapstone.
And I don’t know if I can ever forgive myself if I sweep all Kaiden has done under a rug.
There will surely come a time when, eventually, I’ll trip over it.
And the fall will break more than my bones.
“Right before she…died, Adrianna told me my mother saved her life. She has been watching over me and searching for an oracle at my mother’s request. She said she found one.
She also mentioned a place—the Drunken Owl—and a guy named Rhett.
I think it’s a bar.” I don’t tell him about the flashback, though.
Kaiden runs a hand on the back of his neck. “Okay. I’ll see what I can find about the Drunken Owl—” The sound of his phone ringing interrupts him. “Sorry,” he murmurs as he takes it out of his front pocket to respond. Even though I don’t want to listen in, I can’t help my enhanced hearing.
“We’re done. I used magic to restore everything as it was. I also had Carter transport the fae woman’s body to our guy at the morgue. But what do I tell him to do with it?” Malik inquires.
“Wait a second.” He turns to me. “They transported Adrianna’s body—”
“I heard. Um, well…I don’t…” Something hard lodges in my throat.
A fresh wave of sadness hits me because I don’t know what she would have wanted…
if there are fae customs to honor her. Everything I knew about her—which wasn’t much anyway—was a lie.
It’s starting to feel like a recurring theme in my life.
Kaiden must sense my conundrum because he doesn’t wait for me to finish. “Just tell him to keep her body in the morgue for a few days, and we’ll let him know what we decide.”
“Can they stitch her up?” I whisper.
He nods.