CHAPTER 3 #2
My head swiveled back to her. The mist recoiled as her chest rose with a sharp breath. The sudden…sorrow I picked up from her was tangy and hard to swallow as the Primal essence swirling around her collapsed and then completely evaporated.
Our eyes met. The crimson had disappeared into the shadowy bands, and…gods. I saw what looked like recognition in her stare.
Every muscle in my body went rigid. “Poppy?”
She wiped the back of her hand over her chin. Her gaze lowered to the blood streaking her fingers. She stiffened and then flinched, letting out a short, piercing cry as she staggered to the side. Her knees buckled.
I shot forward. This time, I was faster than Reaver and reached her before he could stop me.
With his sharp curse echoing in the chamber, I caught her around the waist and lowered both of us.
Drawing her close to my chest, I carefully tilted her head back.
“Do you…?” I cleared my throat. “Do you remember who you are?”
“Cas,” she whispered.
A shudder of relief swept through me, and I swore to the gods that if I weren’t already sitting, I would’ve ended up on the floor. A knot lodged in my throat, and my vision blurred a little. I couldn’t find my fucking voice. Likely because there weren’t words to express the relief I felt.
Trembling, she stared up at me, her breathing ragged. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.
My chest squeezed. “You have nothing to apologize for, my Queen.”
“I hurt you,” she cried, her eyes glistening with tears as she stared at my neck. “Oh, gods, I hurt you.”
“I’m completely fine. I swear to you,” I assured her, feeling Reaver drawing closer.
Not taking my attention off her, I smoothed my thumb over her cheek to wipe away a tear that had worked itself free.
I smiled for Poppy, saying, “If you have an ounce of self-preservation, Reaver, you will stay back.”
He halted.
“Reaver—” Gripping my arm, she sucked in a sharp breath and sat up, looking over my shoulder. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t worry about him,” I told her. “He’s also fine.”
Reaver huffed.
Cupping her cheek, I guided her eyes back to mine. My heart—our hearts—pounded. “It’s going to be okay.”
Her cool fingers slid up my arm. “I lo—” With a piercing scream, her head kicked back.
Panic seized me as her body went rigid. I shouted her name as she strained in my arms.
Dismissing my earlier warning, Reaver was at our side in a heartbeat.
I couldn’t hold Poppy still in my arms. I had to lay her on the floor, keeping one arm under her head as my gaze swept over her body, looking for any signs of injury.
I tugged down the hem of the gown that had ridden up and did another sweep.
I didn’t see anything but the smear of dried blood on her neck.
As much as I wanted to blame Reaver, I knew he hadn’t caused this.
“She’s been feeling pain like this on and off since she woke. ”
Her eyes widened. “No.” Terror poured into that one word as she suddenly scrambled back—or tried to. “ No !”
“Poppy—” I caught the fist she swung at me an inch before it connected with my face.
Holding her hand to my chest, I shifted onto my knees in case she tried to swing on me again.
“What did I say before? There’s no need for hitting,” I said, forcing my tone to be light and teasing. “At least, right now.”
“Let me go!” she screamed.
My heart dropped. “I can’t do that, Poppy. I’m sorry, but…” I trailed off, my body flashing cold. She stared at me as if I terrified her.
And Poppy had never truly been afraid of me. Not even when she should’ve been.
But she had been earlier when she kept backing away from me, when she looked at me like I’d been conjured from her worst nightmares. It was almost as if she wasn’t seeing me but rather someone else.
All at once, I remembered how she had said I’d called her weak. She had sounded so certain I’d spoken those words. But I hadn’t. I would never when she was the very opposite of that.
Was she somehow slipping back and forth between remembering who she was and not?
I managed to hold her still. “Who am I?”
Poppy thrashed wildly, refusing to answer.
“Look at me,” I demanded, feeling the air charge with eather. “Damn it, look at me, Poppy!”
Her eyes snapped open, revealing that dull crimson again. She started to turn her head.
Dropping her hand, I gripped her chin. “You know who I am. You just said so. And you know I love you. That you’re just as much my everything as I am to you.”
Poppy blinked several times, finally calming in my arms. The crimson streaks in her eyes faded away once more. “Cas…”
“That’s my Queen.” My smile was immediate, but I felt little relief. “Can you tell me what just happened?”
“I saw—” Poppy reared back, another scream leaving her before she clenched her jaw shut.
Cursing under my breath, I laid her out once more since that had seemed to help last time. Her jaw clenched as she twisted sideways, bringing her knees against my legs and trying to curl up. The raw anguish coming from her seared my soul like a branding iron.
A frantic sort of desperation fisted in my chest as I folded my hand around hers. “Tell me what’s wrong. Please .”
Sweat beaded on her forehead. “I…I hurt .”
An ache that was all mine gripped my chest. Taking a bone dagger there was less painful than the sight of Poppy in such pain. “I know, sweetheart.”
“Sweetheart?” she gasped. “You…you’ve never called me that before.”
“I know.” A shaky laugh left me. “It kind of just came out.”
“I…I like it.” She panted, lashes fluttering.
“Then I will make sure I say it again,” I promised, my breath ragged. “Can you tell me what hurts?”
“Everything,” she whispered.
“That kills me to hear. It really does.” I gently brushed my fingers over her shoulder as my mind raced for a way to help her. “We can get you something to take for the pain. Medicine.” I glanced back at Reaver. “Would that work on her?”
He stared at her, a curtain of hair shielding his profile. “I don’t know. The only time I’ve seen a Primal in such pain was due to a physical wound. And with that, it’s usually feeding or going into stasis.”
That wasn’t much, but it was something. “She didn’t get enough blood.” A smidgen of hope blossomed as I brushed several hair strands back from her face. “Poppy, you need to feed—”
“No.”
“It could take the pain away.” I bent over her, tucking some hair behind her ear once more. “It could help.”
“You…can’t allow that.”
“Poppy—”
Her eyes snapped open as she clutched my arm. “There’s something—” Her features contorted with agony, her nails digging into my skin. “There’s something wrong with me.”
My heart lurched at the tremor in her voice. “We’ll figure out whatever it is and fix it. Together.”
“It’s not…safe.” Her eyes opened to thin slits. “You need to stay away from me.”
“That, I cannot do.”
“I’m sorry,” Poppy whispered and then inhaled deeply. “I love you.”
A heartbeat later, the air crackled with essence. Without warning, she wrenched herself free, and my ass was skidding backward across the stone. So was Reaver.
“Fuck.” I grunted, popping to my feet the moment she let up. I’d ended up clear across the chamber.
Poppy was on her feet in an instant, and those blotches of silver churned around her pupils as the streaks of gold and thin bands of crimson brightened. Those weren’t the only changes, though.
Along the swells of her breasts, gold-and-silver shadows blossomed under her skin. I watched them spread across her shoulders and climb up her throat, just as I’d seen them move in my flesh earlier.
“I…I don’t want…to hurt you,” she rasped, the crimson streaks dulling and then brightening in her eyes.
I blinked. “I know.”
A wave of burning-cold power drenched the chamber as she twisted her neck to the side. The essence in my blood stirred frantically in response while Reaver let out a low, staggered growl.
The air charged and crackled. Lightning flashed outside, briefly turning the chamber silver. The shadows raced down her arms as the streaks of red brightened in her eyes. “I will…kill you.”
“No.” I shook my head, squaring my shoulders. “You won’t.”
She went utterly still. Not even her chest moved. Then, her lips curled into a thin smile. “You can’t stop me.”
My entire body recoiled at the sound of her voice. It was all kinds of wrong—thready and brittle like dried bones and as cold as the darkest cell.
That smile wasn’t hers.
The voice wasn’t hers.
But she was in there.
That much I knew.
Latching onto that knowledge, I stalked forward. “You won’t allow yourself to hurt me.”
Poppy’s laugh felt like ice against my skin, but I didn’t stop. Her head—her body—moved in an almost serpentine manner as she straightened. The essence in me pulsed more frantically—
Reaver crashed into me a second before the chamber flashed an intense gold and silver. We both hit the floor.
“You’re a fool,” Reaver growled, his eyes wide. “You’re a fucking lovesick fool.”
“Get off me.” I shoved him to the side and sat up.
He rolled onto his back with a groan. “You’re welcome.”
I started to respond, but the first thing I saw was the cracked, smoking stone tile right where I’d been standing.
I shook my head.
“For saving your life,” Reaver added. “ Again .”
I slowly rose to my feet and turned to Poppy. She was pressed against the wall, staring at her hands. The mottled shadows were gone from her skin.
“Oh, my gods,” she rasped.
“It’s all right.” I stepped over the burnt stone. “It’s okay.”
“No, it’s not.” She jerked her head toward me. “Don’t…come any closer.”
A sharp ache pierced my chest. “Poppy, my Queen, I have to.”
“Even she knows you need to stay away from her,” Reaver commented, picking himself up. “So, try listening to her, you idiotic fuck.”
“You need to shut the fuck up,” I snapped at him.