18
ALBY
It’s been two days.
Ezla’s still unmoving, laid out on our Bonded bed. Any time I look at her, I’m begging the universe to please just give me, give my brothers, a sign, any sign, that she’s okay, that the stunning figure before me isn’t just an empty vessel.
But there’s not been a single twitch.
There’s purple splotches under my eyes to match my brothers’, and Scotty now returns to the bedroom from the connected bathroom with a few wet towels and a bucket of bubbly water.
We’d decided a couple of minutes ago that Ezla would like to be clean after so many hours without a shower, and it gives us all something to do other than soak up the devastation and depression that’s stuffed the air full.
We’ve not been training—there’s no point without Ezla, and none of us can even think about preparing for The Maze with the current situation, anyway.
All we have been doing is thinking of ways to wake Ezla back up, but the only thing we keep coming back to is the Game Master, and he’s certainly not visited. There’s not been a single peep of him.
Despite my terror, I’m not liking that fact. He’s the only known way we can get Ezla back.
We actually flew back up to his penthouse the morning after we found her, but all we found was a hatch on the rooftop that had been fixed and updated to taalk, which sent both Tate and Cooper into a rage where they destroyed their bedrooms when we got back to our Bonded chambers afterwards.
Luckily, Scotty managed to avoid being beaten to a pulp again when he had to try and calm the two of them down, maybe because me and Tiger helped this time, or because they both know after how Ezla fixed him up recently how much she didn’t like to see Scotty like that.
We’ve been asking that question even more than usual over the past couple of days: What would Ezla want?
But also, what would Ezla do? But none of us are as intelligent as she was—is, I remind myself, focus gluing securely to her chest, which, with the number of times and for how long I’ve been staring at her while she’s been unconscious, I can now actually just catch the faint rise and fall of—and we just don’t know the right answers.
Rubbing at my dry and irritated eyes, I take the cloth Scotty hands me with a small, “Thanks,” fist trembling around it as I move over to Ezla. I hesitate before gently swiping it over her foot.
It feels wrong to touch her when she’s like this. I find it difficult as it is with how much of a nervous wreck I am, and I want her to be awake so we can experience every first touch together, so I can witness all her reactions to every little thing we do, and she can witness mine.
Me and my brothers collectively decided that stripping her to nothing to shower her was a step too far, no matter how confident Ezla is in her body.
We only did it before to remove anything we could of Joseph from her, but now it doesn’t feel right, even if a shower or bath would be better.
So I can only do my best to clean skin that has no visible dirt to get rid of yet would likely feel grimy for Ezla at this stage.
And I don’t know if she can feel us, but if she can, I hope this brings at least some relief.
We’ve been talking to her, me less so because I’m scared to be so vulnerable, to pour my heart and feelings out about this situation, in front of the other men, even if they are my brothers. But again, we have no idea if she can hear us.
Even so, we still do it, and Tate leans in now, forcing me to turn my head away in attempt to give him some privacy.
But I can’t help but watch as he mutters gruffly, moving the towel in his hand gently over her cheek, “Miss you, Havoc. But I know you’ll come back to me . . . to me and my . . . brothers.”
My eyes snap up as a small jolt runs through me before I zap them back down. I didn’t miss the slight widening of Tiger’s eyes either as we witness Tate acknowledging us as his brothers for the first time.
Clearing his throat, he continues, “You’ll wake up. And you’ll be yourself. You’ll see me, us, and you’ll know we’re yours.”
Cooper’s actually been unusually quiet for a while now, and he remains silent as he drills his eyes into Ezla’s hand with a focus that’s definitely not needed for the simple task of cleaning her.
He appears troubled, and not just because of the obvious, features stiff, tightening further at Tate’s words.
Turning our Bonded’s hand over, he cleans her already-spotless knuckles, thumb of the hand not holding the wet cloth gently rubbing over one in a seemingly unconscious movement.
“She needs to eat,” Tiger whispers, his volume cut down to a tenth of his usual as he leans over the side of the bed and dips his cloth in the bucket of bubbly water beside it to re-wet it.
Bringing the small black towel back to where he’d been working on one of Ezla’s arms, he shakily smooths the luxurious material over her skin.
“She has to wake up soon. Jos—Joseph wouldn’t let her waste away.
” He’s said that a few times already today, and I’m not sure if he’s trying to convince himself or us, but my hope’s gradually dwindling by the hour.
Scotty’s been reassuring him each time, but this time, he says nothing, and the pain and dread within me grow.
If he’s silent, it’s because he believes Tiger’s words are now the least likely outcome.
Opening my mouth, I go to say something, anything, to try and alleviate some of the suffocating—
“Stop.”
Everything stills.
The others have frozen, too, no one moving a muscle.
Then our eyes cautiously shift to Cooper.
My heart’s pounding even before he speaks.
“Did you feel that?” His voice is hushed, and the silence in the room deepens.
All my senses on high alert, I keep every muscle perfectly motionless. Tiger, Scotty, and Tate do the same. Then—
“I feel her,” Scotty breathes.
“Me too,” Tiger whispers, and when I move my eyes to him, I see his blue ones lighting a fraction, a near-awed expression on his face.
Gulping, I look away from him. Closing my eyes, I hone my focus in on the bond, in my chest where I know the sensation of her presence would have eruptions going off.
Velvet and sin faintly brushes up against me.
Gasping, my eyes snap back open.
And collide with two inky-crimson ones.