“Nothing—she was like this when I came to bring her dinner.”
Silas moves past me into the bathroom. He comes back with a wet cloth, sits on the edge of the bed, and starts wiping the sweat from Blue’s forehead. His hands are steady and careful, the way you’d handle something you were afraid of breaking. Then he leans down and presses his lips to her forehead, soft and barely there, and I just stand there staring because I have never once in my life seen Silas do anything like that.
The door bangs open ten minutes later, and Cassia walks in. Dark hair loose around her shoulders, violet eyes already sharp and focused. She looks at me, looks at Blue, and points at the door.
“Move.”
Every instinct I have tells me to stand my ground, to protect what’s mine. I force it down and step aside.
Cassia’s hands move over Blue’s body. “How long has she been like this?”
“A few hours. Maybe more.” My jaw aches from clenching. “Can you help her?”
Cassia looks up at me. Her expression gives me nothing good. “Her body’s shutting down, Darius. Something is seriously wrong.”
She goes back to examining Blue, pressing along her torso and limbs, then stops. Her fingers hover over a spot on Blue’s hip, just above the pubic bone, and freeze.
“My cabin. Now.”
I pick up Blue, and we practically run to Cassia’s medical cabin.
I lay Blue down on the examination table in the center of the room. Cassia is already moving, checking the pulse and temperature, and pulling back the eyelids. She works fast and says nothing.
Her hands slow. Her fingers stop at Blue’s inner thighs. Something changes in her face. The professional calm cracks, and what comes through is something cold and furious.
“Everybody out,” she says.
“What—”
“Out. Now. Except you, Darius. I’ll need you to hold her.”
The others file out, and Archer shuts the door behind them.
Cassia pulls the boxers off and carefully pushes up the oversized shirt. Then she eases Blue’s legs apart, and I see it.
Wire. Thin, dark wire, stitched into the skin around her sex. Sewn in deliberately and threaded through her flesh as if someone was stitching a garment shut. Which is exactly what they were doing.
They sewed her closed.
“What the fuck.”
The room tilts. My wolf slams against the inside of my skull so hard my vision goes white. A sound comes out of me that I don’t recognize, low and animal and broken, and I have to grab the edge of the table to keep from going to my knees.
“Darius.” Cassia’s voice is sharp. “Stay with me. I need you to be functional.”
I nod, getting a grip.
Cassia’s jaw is clenched so hard I can see the tendons in her neck. “Wolfsbane wire,” she continues. “Sewn into her body to prevent sexual contact. Whoever did this wanted to make sure she stayed sealed. The wire is laced with wolfsbane, so if she shifts, it won’t break. It stays intact. And because it’s wolfsbane, it’s been slowly poisoning her the entire time it’s been in.”
“That’s why she needs to shift every day?” I ask.
“Yes. The shifting won’t remove the wire, but it helps her body fight the poison.”
“When was the last time she shifted?”
“I don’t know. She asked me to shift this morning, but I refused. I thought it was a ploy to escape.”
“If you stopped her from shifting, the wolfsbane had nothing pushing back against it. Her body has started shutting down.”