I should’ve shifted last night when Silas unchained me. Should’ve taken the chance instead of burrowing into those stupid, soft blankets like an idiot.
Stupid, stupid idiot.
The last thing I see before the darkness swallows me is Charly’s stick-figure shape propped against the pillow, watching over me the way he always does.
Useless. Both of us.
12
Darius
Her scent hits me before I even open the door.
The sweet berry scent I’ve already started memorizing has curdled into something rank. Fruit left to rot in the heat. My gut tightens.
What the fuck.
“Blue? Dinner’s ready.”
Silence.
I push the door open. She’s sprawled on the floor, hair plastered to her forehead. Her chest rises and falls in shallow, rapid little breaths.
“Blue?” I step forward, half expecting her to spring up and go for my throat. Some kind of play. But up close, her skin is pale, and there’s no faking the tremor running through her body.
“Hey. Can you hear me?” I shake her shoulder, trying to be gentle about it. Her eyelids flutter but don’t open. I fumble with the chain, get it off her wrist, and toss it aside.
I scoop her off the floor and lay her on the bed. She weighs nothing.
“Blue, you can shift now. Shift and heal.”
Her mouth opens. A thin, weak sound comes out, barely more than air. A second of relief that she’s responsive, but it doesn’t last. Her breathing is getting worse, not better, and the trembling hasn’t stopped.
“Shift, Blue.” I let my alpha command bleed into my voice. I don’t want to, but I don’t see a choice. “You have to heal. Do it now.”
Her muscles tense. I can see her trying, the way her body strains and then just gives out. She slumps back, her head rolling to the side.
“Fuck!”
I should’ve let her shift when she asked. She told me she needed it. Told me she had a condition. And I said no because I was too proud and too paranoid, too sure it was a trick to escape. And now she’s lying here with her eyes rolled back and her body shutting down because I was too fucking stubborn to listen.
I press my hand to her forehead. She’s burning up.
“Elias!” I shout, not taking my eyes off her. “Get Cassia. Now.”
Footsteps pound down the hall, and Elias skids into the doorway. “What happened? Is she—”
“Get her now.”
“She’s at the—”
“I don’t care if she’s delivering triplets to the Moon Goddess herself. Get. Her. Now.”
Elias doesn’t argue and runs out the door.
I turn back to Blue. The others file into the room behind me.
“What did you do to her?” Archer says.