Page 11 of Found In Destruction

Mal erected a shield around us, which did little to help. Every time a bolt of magic left her, it broke through or damaged it enough that it wouldn’t work.

Feathers, I got them. We need to leave.

We’re together, near the front door. It’s crumbled, and we’re trapped. We need to meet at their apartment,he linked me.

Take us to your apartment, now!I shouted. Blood poured from Diana’s nose and it stood starkly against her pale skin.

Mal grabbed both our hands, and within seconds we were sprawled out in the middle of his living room.

“Diana!” Michael shouted, running over to her. He threw himself on the floor, going straight to work on trying to heal her. “This damage is too bad for just me. We need a team of healers. She has to go home.”

“No!” She screamed as a burst of magic tore through the ceiling. “I can’t go back there.”

She cried, but I doubt it was because of the pain she was in—Diana was much too strong to succumb to that. She cried because of her broken heart…a heart I had a role in breaking.

I picked her up off the floor, cradling her to my body. “Yes you can, Little Goddess. It’s where you belong.”

Azazel instructed us to link our hands, so I threw Diana over my shoulder so I’d have a free hand. As we traveled back to our own time, I prayed to the cosmos that she would be fine. That the timeline would be as it always was. And that there was a way she could forgive us all.

5

DESMOND

“You two need to get to the Infirmary ASAP. Diana is in critical condition, and she isn’t conscious.” Judas shouted upon entering our barracks. His volume was enough to make my already overwhelming hangover worse.

“What the fuck?!” Bash raged as he stood and took my hand. He faded us there in an instant and charged through the double doors like he was on a rampage. “Did Az listen to me when I told him to bring her back–”

Sighing, I faded us out of the Infirmary back to our living room. I didn’t have time for his anger issues, and I wouldn’t let them ruin our chances at making things right with Diana. The shield I erected to keep Bash boxed in was fortified by my shadows. He was trapped for the time being.

“Listen to me, or else we aren’t going anywhere,” I said to him as if he was a child. I felt my horns sprout from my hairline, and tried to rein in my anger so I didn’t shift. “You’re going to calm the fuck down, and stop talking to Azazel like you’re a toxic, abusive piece of shit. When you see him there, you’ll thankhim for bringing our woman home. When you see her, you’ll act remorseful and apologize.We all will.”

Bash stared at me, and I realized I was using my new voice. The sound was dark, eerie. Almost other-worldly. It was a gift I had received along with my shadows when I came back from the other side. I never used it in front of people because of how unsettling it could be. I coughed, changing back to the voice I always had.

“Do I make myself clear, Sebastian?”

He nodded without a word, and I faded us back to where we left. We calmly walked to her ward and Michael opened the door to let us into her room. It wasn’t a typical hospital room, resembling a spacious hotel suite instead. Oisín sat by her bedside, holding her hand with tears in his eyes. I had never seen him this upset. It didn’t bode well for her condition.

What happened?I linked Ares. He didn’t look much better than Oisín.

Her magic went haywire, and she destroyed the club. Everything happened so fast. The healers have some treatments they’re working on.He rubbed the back of his neck, and that’s when I realized he was wearing all leather. From his vest to his pants. I discreetly used my magic to change his outfit to gray sweatpants, a black tee shirt and sneakers.

Thank you.Even through the mindlink, I could hear him sniffling, trying to hold his tears back.

I spent the past few months drinking myself into a stupor so I didn’t have to feel the crushing weight of my own fuckups. Or my guilt. The rare times I was sober, it felt as if stones weighed down on me as they piled higher and higher until I was buried beneath them. But that meant I wasn’t there for Ares, or any of the guys.

I gave him a hug and had I been a smaller man, he would have crushed me. His tears soaked my sweatshirt, and my heart broke for him. My magic allowed me to feel every ounce ofhis fear, sorrow, and guilt as it swirled inside him. Despite not having his permission, I used my emotional manipulation to pump some neutrality through him, so he didn’t break down by her bedside.

She wasn’t responding to us at the apartment we had to escape to. What if she never wakes up?I had the same concern as Ares but didn’t want to say anything.

The door opened again, and a nurse wheeled Mal in. He looked awful, and his wounds weren’t healing. His leg was bandaged and propped up. He barely waited for his wheelchair to stop before he was lifting himself up and hobbling toward her bed. He sat on the side and ran his fingers through her hair.

Ares let me go and sat next to him, wrapping him up in a hug that made Mal wince. They didn’t say anything to each other, but I could tell there wasn’t too much bad blood between them.

Come here.Lucifer’s voice rang through my head and I cringed. I hated that he could get inside my mind, but couldn’t do much about it. He and Bash left the room, and I followed them out. We met Michael and a pale vampire with long blond hair in the hallway, and based on her white coat I assumed she was Diana’s doctor.

“Hello, I’m Doctor Kira Greene,” she introduced herself. “I’ll be treating Diana during her stay.”

“What’s the prognosis, and what can we expect as treatment?” Lucifer asked in an annoyed tone, not bothering to introduce himself. I guess the Prince of Darkness didn’t see the need to when everyone knew who he was.

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