The surgery to save his life had taken hours, and she’d remained glued to his side the entire time. It wasn’t just for him; her magic had needed her to be there. If she hadn’t been sitting right next to him, hadn’t seen his vitals dip but then rise once more, she wasn’t sure what would’ve happened. What she would’ve done.
My magic does not control me. It is a tool that I’ve been given. I control it.
Eliza was right…. But it turned out she was also wrong.
River’s magic was controllable, for the most part, but it was also a curse. There was no doubt in River’s mind about that, especially as she spent hours wrestling it back under her control.
It was easier with Nikhail around. Her magic was calmer around him—at least, when he wasn’t dying. Easier to manage.
That was good, because gods above.
This man.
This. Man.
First, he had the absolute audacity to show up at her hospital, hovering on the brink of death. Who did that? Who disappeared for a month without even a text and then showed up like he did?
And then, as if that wasn’t bad enough—it was—he tried leaving a few scant hours after his life-saving surgery ended. She’d gone to use the restroom, and when she returned, he’d been facedown on the floor, a growing crimson puddle beneath him.
River didn’t understand. How could he be so gods-damned stubborn and uncaring about his own health? Who ripped out an IV and attempted to return to work after suffering a nearly fatal stomach wound?
Gods-damned Nikhail Galebringer, that’s who.
The air fae had been stubborn for as long as River had known him, but this behavior was reckless, even for him. Did he care about his own well-being at all?
If he did, she had yet to see any evidence of it.
She was so frustrated that she could scream to the heavens. And she probably would, if she weren’t in a hospital room with the infuriating man.
Even now, from where he remained in the hospital bed, he drew the eye. His skin was paler than usual, but there was no ignoring him.
“What happened, Nik?” she asked again, when he still hadn’t spoken.
Those amber eyes held her gaze. “You promise to keep this between us?”
“Of course.” Her answer was instantaneous.
River knew how secretive these military men could get. There had been many times in her life when Ryker had excused himself to take a call for work, and even more when he’d only been able to give her the vaguest details of what he’d done that day.
“You have my word,” she added. “I won’t tell anyone.”
He smiled, although it was more of a grimace, and pressed a button to adjust the bed. The top half shifted until he was sitting up.
“Thank you, River,” he said.
She was actively ignoring the way hearing him say her name made her feel because she needed to concentrate on how he’d ended up here. Doing so was surprisingly difficult, but she couldn’t focus on why that was.
“As you so astutely pointed out earlier, I was shot,” Nikhail said calmly, as if he were telling her that the sky was blue. As if this was normal, and these types of things happened to him on a regular basis.
Wait.
Didthey happen to him on a regular basis? Was he in and out of hospitals all the time? She’d never heard him mention a serious injury like this in the past, but maybe he was just good at hiding them? Was that why he was covered in scars?
Her fingers dug into her arms, and she paced in front of the bed. Back and forth, she wore a trail on the tile. She had to keep moving because focusing on where she was putting her feet was better than yelling at the injured fae. He was still healing from a gunshot wound, after all.
“Yes, I’m aware,” she clipped.
Watching Doctor Marvish dig a bullet out of Nikhail’s stomach had been one of the worst experiences of River’s life. Her heart had plummeted to her feet when the surgeon had announced the presence of over a dozen prohiberis-laced shards of shrapnel in the wound.