Page 73 of Hell Storm

“What happened to her?” he called out, seconds before a heavy door slammed shut as the one he asked left without giving an answer.

“Bloody hell,” he murmured to himself, placing a cool hand to the back of my neck as he held me.

I could make out an array of light and color, but no discernable shapes.

Struggling to focus, I was suddenly yanked back to reality, and a sharp breath rushed into my lungs. I bolted upright. In that moment, despite having heard Levi’s voice seconds before, I imagined I was still in Aaric’s lair. His was the last face I’d seen before losing consciousness.

The last I’d seen before I was taken down, injected with an unknown substance.

Frantic, I scurried backwards across the padded floor until my shoulder blades struck the wall. My eyes darted from one end of the room to the other, desperate to get my bearings.

“I … something’s wrong,” I rambled.

The room spun, and I closed my eyes to make it stop. Something was off, even beyond feeling disoriented. It was almost as if I wasn’t myself. Or, I was, but …

“Shh, I’ve got you. You’re safe now.”

Unlike the other times Levi whispered promises in my ear, I didn’t believe him. Locked inside this place, we wouldneverbe safe. I was certain he meantwhat he said, but we were powerless here. For example, I’d just lost a chunk of time I couldn’t account for and there was no telling what had been done to me. No telling what secrets I’d been coerced to relinquish.

I just … something didn’t feel right.

“How long was I gone,” I blurted, glancing up at Levi.

He pushed a hand across the back of his neck with a sigh. “If I had to guess, four hours maybe? Too long.” He breathed a frustrated breath. “I called out for the guards, willing to beg for information when you didn’t return, but no one ever came. Not until now.”

I blinked at Levi, aware of the mixture of relief and concern in the look he returned. He’d been worried.

When I blacked out with Aaric, I’d been away for maybe two hours already—thanks to the extensive preparation his followers had made a priority. So, now to hear I had been gonetwicethat long was unsettling to say the least.

“He … he bit me,” I stammered, pressing a hand to the side of my neck. When I removed my fingers, sticky blood from the wound coated them.

Levi knelt beside me.

“I know,” he seethed through gritted teeth. “And I’ll kill him for it.”

These words were spoken with such certainty that I didn’t doubt for an instant he’d do just that when given the chance. The strength in his arm when it encircled my shoulders was comforting, but only a little.

“Do you remember anything else?” he asked, eager to know.

A few details came rushing back to me. “He attacked me, even after I told him I’d been bitten by two princes, and while I was pinned to the ground, he got me with the syringe.” Frazzled, I pushed a hand through my hair. “I don’t know what was in it, only that my body started to go numb, and then I passed out.”

A sympathetic gaze landed on me and I felt every ounce of the emotion within it. It’d been Levi’s biggest fear that I’d go to that dinner and wouldn’t be able to defend myself against Aaric. Shockingly enough, things played out exactly the way he expected.

“Did he drop any clues that might shed light on his agenda?”

Closing my eyes, I thought harder. The memory was still only coming through in fragments, annoyingly small bits and pieces, which may have had something to do with being dosed.

“He was tightlipped about everything. The one morsel he gave is that he’s doing—whateverhe’s doing—for his people. For the Roamers,” I shared.

I still had no clue how holding us here helped his obscure cause, but if it wasn’t money he wanted, then perhaps his objective was to make an example of us somehow. Either way, he seemed to think my being here was fate.

Levi glanced at me and our eyes locked. “What provoked him to attack?” His jaw flexed solid after asking.

Recalling every detail was the last thing I wanted to do, and the last thing Icoulddo seeing as how I still wasn’t myself.

“Apparently, I wasn’t convincing enough,” I admitted. Levi seemed anxious to interject, but he let me explain instead. “He already knew I’d been racing for years. So, when I tried to pass for just being your Doll, he … he didn’t buy it.” I lowered my head, questioning whether I could have done something differently.

I leaned into Levi’s touch when he trailed the uninjured side of my neck with cool fingertips. It was clear he only meant to look me over for more wounds, but I enjoyed the contact all the same. The gentleness of his touch, in contrast to the harshness of Aaric’s, made it easier to accept that this was real, that I’d really made it back and wasn’t just dreaming of Levi. I guess it was finally sinking in that I was safe.

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