Page 273 of Psycho Devils: Aran's Story 2

I reached my hand out to the side pathetically.

For long moments, I thought she wouldn’t take it, but icy fingers wrapped around my much larger hand.

Arabella’s skin was a sharp contrast to my clammy skin.

I wrapped my fingers tightly around hers.

She didn’t let go.

Memories of her resting against me in the shower flashed through my mind. Her lean, powerful body had completely relaxed as she closed her eyes and smiled while I soaped her hair.

Such a small interaction.

Fuck, the most I’d done was kiss along her jawline.

Yet it had felt more intense and potent than any fuck I’d had since I’d gotten to the academy.

By the time we finally made it back to the room, I was shaking. My skin was ice cold, but I convulsed with hot flashes.

It was too much.

When Arabella released my hand, I made a pathetic sound of distress.

Orion pulled out one of the bloody mattress pads from the competitions, and Scorpius laid me down gently onto the makeshift cot.

Orion, Scorpius, and Arabella paused above me. They looked at one another with wide eyes.

“Do it. Pull it out now,” I ordered.

Arabella nodded and looked down at me with determination as she leaned forward.

I swore. “Not you.” I gritted my teeth. “Scorpius.”

Her bruised eyes filled with hurt.

Scorpius nodded as he understood what I was saying and forcibly pulled her back. “Turn around,” he ordered her. “Don’t watch.”

Orion shoved a strip of leather between my teeth. It was indented from where Zenith had bitten down as we stitched him three days earlier.

I nodded up at Orion, who used his body to shield Arabella’s view.

Grateful that he also didn’t want Arabella to have to see this.

My mates and I had talked about it at night. None of us liked how she was being targeted in these games.

There was purposeful hazing and power dynamics—sometimes you had to use force to make your point—but what was happening to Arabella was cruel. Pointless.

For some reason, the gods had singled her out.

They were targeting her.

She was falling apart before our eyes, and we could do nothing to help.

It was infuriating.

And I wasn’t so conceited that I couldn’t see that Arabella had saved me by using her ice fae powers to stab me. That was why I didn’t want her removing the dagger. She didn’t need more guilt and pain heaped onto her already fragile state.

Not today. Not because of my weakness.

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