Chapter 10
CHAPTER TEN
Igasp as the impact sends a jolt through my body that rattles my very bones.
Black smoke explodes around us, obscuring my vision.
Shoving myself into a sitting position, I try to blink my eyes back into focus.
But all I can see is the black smoke that now covers the wet grass around us.
We were close to the mountain when we crashed, not over it, so at least we didn’t hit any of the rocks.
Cold dread washes through me. We didn’t hit any of the rocks, did we?
“Draven!” I scream over the rushing winds and the crashing rain. “Draven!”
No reply.
Fear spreads through my body like poison.
“He’s here,” Isera suddenly calls back.
Exhaustion laces her voice, so I can just barely hear her over the winds.
I suck in a shuddering breath of relief. Staggering to my feet, I start in her direction. The storm winds whirl across the grass, blowing the black smoke away, until I can at last see my three companions.
But my blood freezes to ice when my gaze finally finds them.
Isera is standing between two tall figures on the ground. Orion is lying on his back on the grass. His eyes are sliding in and out of focus as if he has hit his head, and there is a long gash across his thigh from where the dragon slashed him earlier.
A short distance from him is Draven.
My heart stops as I stare at my mate.
Draven isn’t even conscious. He is lying on his side, completely naked except for those magical bracers that store his armor when he’s in his dragon form.
As if he was only just barely able to shift back into his human form but didn’t have enough energy left to use the magic of the bracers to return his clothes to his body.
Blood wells up from the claw marks across his chest and the massive bite wound in his side. There are deep holes running straight through his body from the orange dragon’s teeth.
For a few seconds, I just stand there, staring at him. My mind refuses to process what I’m looking at and my body feels completely numb.
“We need to get them out of the storm,” Isera suddenly calls.
Her voice snaps me out of my stupor.
“There’s a cave up there,” she says. “But I used up almost all of my magical energy in that final push to escape, so I can’t summon anything big enough to lift them. We’ll have to drag them.”
When I had my eyes closed against the blinding lightning, Isera must have summoned a gigantic wall of ice or something to stop the others from following Draven when we escaped.
Bending down, I hoist Draven’s chest up and loop my arms under his arms and over his shoulders. He doesn’t even stir. My heart aches as I begin dragging him towards the cave Isera indicated.
Orion, who appears to at least be semi-conscious, must have hit his head pretty hard when we crashed because he doesn’t even complain when Isera drags his royal ass and fancy clothes across the ground and towards the mouth of the cave.
My muscles shake and the arrow wound in my side pulses with pain as I pull Draven’s heavy body as carefully as I can across the grass.
Storm wind rips at my hair, pulling strands free from my hair tie and sending them whipping around my face.
A few of them stick to my wet cheeks, so I try to wipe my cheek against my shoulder to get them off.
Rain washes down over us like an unending flood, and lightning splits the dark heavens above.
Clenching my jaw, I grit my teeth as I make slow progress towards the cave.
A small noise of pure desperation rips from my throat as I haul Draven the final distance into the shelter of the cave. Air escapes my lungs in a whoosh when the harsh winds and stinging rain abruptly disappear. It’s cold and gloomy inside the cave, but at least the storm can’t reach us in here.
Isera and I place Draven and Orion on their backs in the middle of the cramped space. The Unseelie King blinks repeatedly and shakes his head while his eyes roam across the jagged roof of the cave, as if he is trying to figure out what happened and where he is. Draven is still unconscious.
Worry snakes through my chest, strangling my lungs, as I stare down at his shivering and wounded body.
I yank off my jacket. Dropping down on my knees, I pull off the white shirt I wear underneath the leathers.
After ripping it into several pieces, I carefully wrap it around his wounds before tying the final piece of it around his hips.
Then I pull on my cold and wet leather jacket again to protect my otherwise bare torso.
With my heart aching in my chest, I gently place my hand on Draven’s cheek.
“Draven,” I say, as if that would somehow wake him up.
It doesn’t.
My heart squeezes hard.
“Where am I?” Orion asks, sounding just as groggy as he looks.
“We’re in a cave,” Isera replies in that no-nonsense tone of hers. “We crashed. Draven is hurt.” Her expression softens for a fraction of a second as she adds, “And so are you.”
The Unseelie King tilts his chin and looks down at the wound across his thigh. “Malachi’s balls. Those were my favorite pants.”
Isera laughs.
It’s a short and abrupt burst of laughter that seems to just rip out of her.
Both Orion and I gape at her in shock. I don’t think I have ever heard her laugh before. It was a surprisingly pleasant sound.
She quickly snaps her mouth shut again, looking equally stunned herself for a moment, before she arches a mocking eyebrow at Orion instead. “How hard did you hit your head? Those pants are awful.”
A sly smile curves his lips. “I could take them off, if you want?”
“You probably should.”
He blinks at her, looking genuinely stunned, before she turns to me.
“You as well,” she says. “These wet clothes in this cold cave all night will give us all hypothermia.”
I nod in understanding and then look down at Draven again.
Apart from the white shirt I’ve tied around his hips and wounds, he’s already naked.
But his body still shakes with either pain or coldness.
My throat closes up. I try to swallow down the dread while I start stripping out of my own clothes, but it works poorly.
Every glance at Draven’s wounded and bloody body sends waves of panic through me.
Like all of us, he has faster healing speed than humans.
But his wounds are far too deep. It will take too long to heal on their own.
But I still have magic left to use, so if he were to suck it out of my body, it would heal him.
However, I have no idea how it works, so I don’t know how to give him the magical energy on my own.
Once I’m down to my underwear, I place my hands on Draven’s cheeks again and try once more to wake him.
“Draven, please, you need to open your eyes,” I beg. “Okay? Just open your eyes and tell me how to transfer my magical energy to you.”
He doesn’t. And his body continues trembling.
Lying down on the cold stone ground next to him, I carefully wrap my arms around his chest and drape my leg over his as I press myself as close to him as possible. The arrow wound in my side throbs, but I ignore it. If I share my body heat with him, he might at least stop shaking.
“Aren’t you going to lie down and hug me like that too?” Orion asks from Draven’s other side. He has now stripped out of his wet clothes, and there is a devilish smirk on his lips as he looks up at Isera.
She narrows her eyes at him. “You’re lucky I haven’t strangled you.”
“Choking turns you on, huh? I might be willing to agree to that. Though I’m usually not on the receiving end.”
Isera growls something under her breath while yanking off her final garments, leaving her in only underwear.
“Draven, please,” I whisper against his cold skin. “Please wake up.”
His eyes remain closed, but his body shakes a little less now. I hold him tighter against me, willing my own meager warmth into his body.
“We really should share body heat at least,” Orion continues. “Hypothermia and all.”
For a few seconds, Isera just glares down at him as if she is fighting the urge to stab him.
Then a soft snarl escapes her lips, and she sits down next to him with jerky movements.
With a flick of her wrist, she summons that ice gag that looks distinctly like a massive cock and holds it right above Orion’s face while she locks threatening eyes on him.
“If you ever tell anyone about this, this goes down your throat,” she warns. “Permanently.”
A sharp smile spreads across his lips, but he says nothing.
Isera dismisses the ice she summoned and lies down next to Orion. He immediately rolls over on his uninjured side and wraps his arms around her body. A low growl comes from her throat, but she doesn’t push him off.
Lifting my hand, I gently brush a few wet strands of hair from Draven’s forehead. My fingers linger on his cheek.
“Please,” I beg again, whispering the words against his skin. “Please, wake up.”
He stirs slightly but doesn’t open his eyes. And it’s a restless stir. Closer to a wince of pain.
I call up my magic. Reaching out, I search for that violet spark of pain in his chest.
When my magic connects, I have to bite my lip hard to stop a gasp. The flame of pain in his chest is so massive that my vision blacks out for a second. Dragging in a long calming breath, I scramble to raise my mental shields so that I can separate his pain from my own.
Once they’re in place, I steadily begin lowering his pain.
A shuddering breath escapes his lips.
I almost weep with relief.
The tension bleeds out of his body as I decrease that wildfire of pain inside him until it’s nothing more than a tiny spark.
His breathing evens out, and the tense crease between his eyebrows smoothens.
Keeping my arms around him, I continue pouring magic into him to take his pain away.
If he could just wake up and tell me what to do, I could heal him directly.
I could give him all of my magic and fix him right now.
But because I don’t know how it works, all I can do is to lie there uselessly next to him and take away his pain.
A temporary fix to deal with the symptoms when I should have been able to fix the entire root cause. Simply because I don’t know how.
Goddess above, there is so much I don’t know. So much knowledge I don’t have, so many lies I’ve been told, so many skills I lack. All because I’ve been trapped inside that one city and fed lies all my life. How am I supposed to keep Draven safe when I’m this weak? This pathetic?
I need to get stronger. Smarter. Better. More ruthless.
And I need to do it fast.
Because no one will ever hurt him like this again. I will make fucking sure of it.