Chapter 10
TEN
We ran.
Somehow, I didn’t stumble on the uneven ground, and despite the burning pain from my side, I made it over the fence with barely even a pause. When we reached Kira’s car, she had me dig her spare clothes out of her trunk so she could shift and change.
Once she had opposable thumbs, she checked the wound across my ribs.
“Shallow,” she reported with a sigh of relief.
“Messy, but it’s already stopped bleeding, I think.
” She offered me a long winter scarf, which I double-wrapped around my waist before tying a knot and hoping I wasn’t going to bleed all over Kira’s car.
“I’m good.” I flashed her a shaky thumbs-up. “We can go.”
Neither of us said anything as we pulled out and headed for Callum’s place. I think we were both too worried, and I reminded myself that Kira was hurting too. This was not only the man I loved, it was her brother. One she’d barely had a chance to get to know.
Thankfully, the streets were empty and no law enforcement spotted us, because Kira was most definitely driving too fast as we headed downtown.
And she clearly didn’t care whether she got a ticket, because she pulled into a no-parking zone right outside The Assemblage, jumped out, and ran for the side door.
I followed close on her heels, but no luck—the door was locked.
Front door—also locked.
Kira muttered under her breath and whipped out her phone. “I get that security is important, but we need to get in there!”
I wasn’t waiting. My lock picks were still in their loops hidden behind my belt, so I pulled them out and got to work. It was my second time picking this lock, so it didn’t take long, despite my shaking fingers. Kira was still waiting for someone to answer her call when the door swung open.
Her jaw dropped as she stared at me and hung up the phone. “You are officially the coolest person I know,” she declared before grabbing my hand and tugging me inside.
The lights were on—proof that someone was in the building—and my anxiety mounted as we dashed past the ancient elevator and headed for the stairs.
Even when I was exhausted, the stairs were the faster option, but I cursed every one of those five flights as we raced up, my thighs burning and the cut across my ribs throbbing with agony.
When we reached the top, I didn’t pause or even knock, just charged right through the front door of Callum’s apartment…
Into the middle of a standoff.
Four women stood in his living room, and the tension was so high I was surprised I didn’t bounce off the air and fly right back out the front door.
Three of them had their backs to me, but it was easy to identify Callum’s family.
Tairen, Skye, and Morghaine faced off against a single blonde woman—tall, slender, and composed, dressed in heels and a suit despite the late hour.
Angelica’s pale gold hair was pulled into a perfect chignon, and her icy blue eyes narrowed slightly as she spotted me…
Oh right. The last time I saw Callum’s executive assistant, I more or less told her to shove off.
Angelica was a gryphon, and typically the most self-controlled, buttoned-up, and put-together person in any crowd. But at that exact moment, I could have sworn she was one wrong move away from shifting right in the middle of Callum’s living room.
“My king’s life is in danger, and his orders specifically stated that no one is allowed to see him until he has been evaluated by a trusted medic,” Angelica was saying, in a tone that suggested she’d repeated these words multiple times already.
“I don’t care who you are. My duty as his assistant is to protect him, and I will not stand aside. ”
As frustrated and scared as I was, my respect for her went up a half dozen notches.
She had to know who she was facing—the former shapeshifter queen, current dragon queen, and former dragon seneschal—but she refused to be run over.
The gryphon was putting her life on the line to protect Callum, and I was thankful for her dedication.
Unfortunately, in this case, it was entirely misplaced.
“Angelica, this is his family.” I stepped towards her at a steady pace, my voice level, my hands at my sides. Non-threatening, I hoped. “They would move heaven and earth for him. Let them help.”
“The king is under my protection.” Her eyes flashed amber, and power resonated from her voice. “Until the medic arrives, I will not be moved. This is the king’s request and is therefore law.”
“Then what does the law say about his mate?” I asked quietly.
Her glowing gaze shifted to me, doubt dimming its fire for the first time. “Your bond has not been formally recognized.”
“It’s the real thing.”
A new voice from behind me seemed to jolt Angelica out of her almost robotic stubbornness. Her eyes flared, her chin jerked, and she stared over my shoulder with visible frustration as the newcomer moved forward to stand beside me.
“You know it, and I know it,” Ryker said, a bit of growl in his normally cheerful tone. “Now let Raine in to see him.”
“But he said…”
“He told Draven no access until they find out who stabbed him. But that was at the Fae Court. He was about to be unconscious and had no one there he could trust. This is his home. His family. Sometimes the letter of the law just isn’t enough, Anj.”
Anj?
The squirrels of curiosity rioted in whatever part of my brain wasn’t currently scared spitless for Callum. How had these two gotten close enough for him to call her Anj? And why hadn’t she stabbed him for his familiarity?
The gryphon took another look at all of us, threw up her hands and let slip a muttered curse entirely at odds with her usual rigid and exacting demeanor.
“Fine,” she snapped. “But if he dies, I will hunt all of you down, starting with you.” She pointed straight at Ryker, and he spread his arms in response.
“Anytime, Anj.”
The moment the way was open, Tairen, Skye, Morghaine, and Kira started forward, disappearing into Callum’s room without another word and leaving me standing there with a grim-looking Ryker and still seething Angelica.
I wanted more than anything else to see Callum. Feel his hand in mine and make sure he was still breathing. Tell him that we would fix this. But I could give his family a moment.
Only a few seconds later, Skye poked her head out and looked at me quizzically. “You don’t have to wait out here.”
“But you’re his family…”
“And you’re his mate,” she said firmly. “Even when he’s unconscious, he needs you more than anyone.”
Ryker offered me an encouraging nod, so I lurched forward despite trembling knees. Walked across the living room, through the doorway, and into the bedroom.
The scene was weirdly disorienting. I’d been in this room, but mostly when waking up from the various incidents and accidents that had befallen me since meeting Callum.
So even though I knew it was Callum’s room, I’d never actually seen him in it.
Never seen him lying in that bed, so pale and still that he might as well be…
My face must have shown everything I was feeling because someone grabbed my hand in a tight grip.
“He’s breathing, Raine. He’s stable.” Kira.
He might be breathing, but I wasn’t. It felt like something heavy was sitting directly on my chest, refusing to let air into my lungs.
Callum had always been so much larger than life—a powerful, burning presence that could not be dimmed or denied.
Strong enough to literally throw a lion across a room, but controlled enough to cuddle a kitten and earn its trust. He made me feel safe, seen, protected.
I must have unconsciously believed there was nothing that could take him down, because seeing him like this…
It awakened a terror I’d never known I could feel. Even in the fae prison, even when I was being hunted in the tunnels, even when Ari and Logan and Kes were missing… it hadn’t been like this.
I drew in a shuddering breath and hit my knees beside the bed.
“Bond feedback,” I heard someone mutter, before a tentative hand landed on my shoulder. “Try to separate your feelings from his. The bond is new, and he’s not conscious enough to be in control, so you may need to work harder to compensate.”
I glanced up at Morghaine. “How do I do that?”
“Touch him,” she told me gently. “Sometimes touch helps with finding the boundaries between the two of you.”
I heard murmurs behind me, but they seemed far away as I reached for Callum’s hand where it lay on the comforter—limp and far too pale.
I’d held this hand only a few times, but I’d already memorized the shape of it—the strength, the warmth, the roughness of his knuckles, the way my fingers slid between his…
It seemed wrong when those fingers failed to curl around mine. His skin was cool and clammy to the touch, but I set my palm to his anyway, then clasped his hand fully between my own and pressed the backs of his fingers to my cheek as I fought back tears.
Somewhere in my chest, the tense and trembling knot of feelings relaxed a little, allowing me to take a breath.
And as my eyes closed, I found that Morghaine was right—it was easier to find the borders of myself and my own fears, easier to sense the miasma of emotions radiating from Callum in uncontrolled waves.
He was so controlled most of the time, it would be easy to assume that he didn’t feel deeply. That he cared less than others—experienced no fear, no worry, no concern.
But that could not be further from the truth.
He cared so much about so many people. Felt the responsibility to provide and protect—to make those he loved as safe as possible.
It was both his personality and his compulsion as a black dragon, and even when unconscious, a part of him was aware enough to feel helpless.
Afraid, not for himself, but for everyone he claimed as his own.
And under that fear, I sensed a hint of something dark and cold—a bitter taint that coated my heart and sank its claws into my soul, whispering of never-ending pain and doubt.