That he’d caused her so much suffering.
And none of us had been there to do a thing to prevent it.
It had me sick to my stomach.
I could barely look at her lying there still unconscious. Even in her sleep, she looked so pained, a grimace etched into her beautiful features.
We should have been able to do more.
We should have been able to spare her entirely. She was ours. Ours to love and protect.
I looked away and pushed out of one of the two chairs X and I had moved right beside her bed.
Then I turned around and went to check on Talon.
His sleep seemed more peaceful, he had a little smile on his face. Although, it could be no indication of what state his mind was in, because he often slept that way.
He was shirtless, the covers pulled halfway up his torso. According to the Healer who I’d near interrogated when I’d arrived back here with an unconscious Alena, her mom instantly at her side and working on healing her, Talon’s burns that he’d sustained from the iron had already healed. It was just a matter of time before he woke up now.
I reached out and stroked his cheek, hoping somehow that he could register it in his unconscious state and feel the comfort of it.
Comfort.
That was usually something I was doling out, especially to Tal.
But, to be honest, right now I needed some of that.
First, seeing Alena in that state, witnessing the evidence of what that psychopath had put her through and inflicted upon her.
Talon being in here.
X trying to kill himself.
My father now dying.
And the cherry on top of that nightmare was my mom.
A traitor among us.
I hadn’t seen or heard from her in three years. I’d spent six months trying to track her down when she’d first left the Dark Fae Realm and my father, but I’d made absolutely no headway. Even my father hadn’t been able to find her.
Now I knew why.
She’d been underground with Constantine’s acolytes.
I’d known she’d had a dangerous and twisted side, something my father had managed to hide most of from me, but this… thiswas another level. I could barely register it as a truth, as a cold, hard fact.Fuck.
I planted a kiss on Talon’s forehead, then stepped away, turning back to Alena, regret taking me over.
“Her natural healing ability is in effect again now.”
So immersed in my thoughts was I that I hadn’t even felt the approach, and I looked to see Abigail Rose standing in the open doorway in her golden jeweled robe, her long white hair windswept.
“Good.” When I’d brought her in here with Elliot, Abigail had needed to heal her completely. Alena had been so weak that she’d barely been healing at all, barely even at the rate of a human. I scrubbed my hand over my face. “The damage he did to her… not only physical… I can’t…”
“She’s home now. She’s safe. And she’s strong. We’ll help her work through all the rest.”
“He told me he’d damaged her beyond repair.”