Nikhail had been a terrible patient, but this was another level of ridiculousness that she simply would not tolerate.
“Nikhail, your internal organs were making a concerted effort to permanently resideoutsidethe confines of your body,” she said as sternly as she could manage. She feared the tremor in her hands was detracting from the seriousness of the conversation. “Believe it or not, that’s not aminorwound.”
That was about as far from minor as he could get.
A muffled cough that sounded suspiciouslylike a laugh came from behind River. She spun around, crossing her arms as she found her sister-in-law watching the conversation, hiding a bemused smile behind her glass of bloodwine.
Ryker, though…
He wasn’t smiling. His eyes were narrowed as they swung between her and Nikhail. As if he knew something was between them. But he didn’t—Nikhail had promised not to tell him about her storm, and she knew he’d kept his promise.
Whatever Ryker thought he saw, he was wrong. There was not, nor would there ever be, anything between River and Nikhail.
The thought had her heart clenching, and she returned her attention to the problem at hand.
“Your best friend had the gall to try and leave the hospital a few hours after he underwent life-saving surgery,” she told her brother. “If they hadn’t stopped him, he would’ve died.”
River’s heart constricted, and her lungs refused to function as thoughts of Nikhail’s death filled her.
Breathe!she commanded herself.
She couldn’t let herself go down that train of thought. Not here. Not now. She had to keep the walls around her heart intact, and she couldn’t do that if she was panicking about the Black Night.
Besides, they’d failed. Nikhail was still alive. That’s why she was doing this.
River could survive without love. She could push everyone away because of her curse, dooming herself to a lonely existence.
But what she couldn’t do—what she never wanted to think about, let alone experience for a single moment—was live in a world that didn’t have Nikhail Galebringer in it.
“That sounds like a harrowing experience.” Ryker’s gods-damned perceptive eyes were still swinging between them. “Your report made things sound much less life-threatening, Nik.”
Nikhail shrugged.Shrugged!As if getting shards of prohiberis pulled from his abdomen was an everyday occurrence. As if he hadn’t been moments from bleeding out.
“Well, you know how it is,” the reckless air fae said. “As long as a killing blow isn’t dealt, there isn’t much difference between a paper cut and a more serious wound.”
River’s mouth fell to the floor, and for a moment, she forgot all about the barriers around her heart. How dare Nikhail be so damned cavalier about this? He’d nearlydied.
Even though fae were notoriously fast healers, they could still experience fatal wounds.
Before River could remind this infuriating man that she knew exactly how close death had been to claiming him because she’d sat by his side for hours, praying for Dyna to heal him, a ripple of energy came from behind her. The air shifted, and the scent of vanilla wafted towards her.
Oh, no.
River’s shoulders stiffened, becoming as rigid as a plank of wood, and she dug her fingernails into her palms as the scent grew stronger. Her eyes burned. Her back straightened.
Other people might’ve enjoyed the scent of vanilla, but not her. It didn’t bring her feelings of joy or memories of baked cookies. She never ate vanilla ice cream, and she despised all perfumes laced with the scent.
No, for River, the fragrance only meant one thing.
Her fears were confirmed a heartbeat later when Ryker tensed beside her. Brynleigh murmured something unfavorable beneath her breath before tossing back the rest of her wine in one gulp. Several shadows wrapped around the vampire’swrists, black bracelets that sucked in the light. Even Nikhail shifted from one foot to the other.
Gods above. River had been able to avoid her mother’s unwanted attention all day, but her good luck just ran out.
And to think that a few minutes ago, she thought that her biggest problem would be keeping the walls up around her heart. In all honesty, that task seemed easy when compared to dealing with the Representative of the Fae. Her mother was a prickly cactus on a good day.
River shut her eyes, inhaling deeply as she pulled strength up from within herself.
I can do this,she reminded herself.I am strong and capable. Even if her words sting, they cannot hurt me.