Page 21 of Celestial Alphas

It’s only a two-minute drive to the hospital, and it’s hard to miss the hospital when it has a giant sign that sayshospitaloutside with big glowing letters. Hollis drives around the side entrance into the parking lot underneath, parking near the entrance doors. Hollis looks back at me. “Onyx told me about that power of yours. You can hide us?”

“Yes, but you’ll have to do something truly horrible, and you might cry at the idea…” Hollis narrows his eyes at me. “I need to hold your hand for it to work well. I know, begin crying. I won’t judge.”

Finnegan bursts into laughter and Hollis looks like he might attempt to kill me before climbing out of the car. My lips twitch as I get out after Finnegan, and we all walk to the doors. Finnegan kisses the top of my head. I’m not sure what to make of these little shows of affection he keeps doing. “I’ll walk ahead and, if you get caught, I’ll deal with it, but run to the car. One of us will drive you back.”

I wiggle my hand at Hollis, who glares at me before aggressively grabbing my hand and holding it a little too tightly. I can’t help but tease him. “You’re so romantic.”

“Bite me,” he snarls low.

“I’m not really into that, thank you,” I mutter.

Finnegan coughs, “Liar.”

My cheeks burn as I remember him biting me and how I bit him right back. He’s right, I’m a damn liar. Hollis looks uncomfortable, but he doesn’t let go of my hand as I use my power to sweep over us and hide us from view. It’s harder when we are moving, but not impossible. The corridor is silent though as we get to the lift, and Finnegan presses the button for it to come. “How is he—Rhodes, I mean?”

“You’ll see, and yes, what you see is your fault,” Hollis states with all the emotion of a plank of wood.

Finnegan gives Hollis a look that suggests he shut the fuck up as we all get into the lift. Thankfully, the elevator doesn’t open for anyone else until we get to the seventh floor, but we comeout to a busy corridor that tests my power. Finn walks right up to a nurse’s table with a charming grin that makes my stomach drop. He doesn’t get to smile at any other female like that. I blink, realising that’s my Nexus being jealous, and I have to push her down to stop her from murdering the poor nurse. I make sure to keep us hidden, very carefully hidden, as the nurse leads Finnegan and us to Rhodes. We get to a quiet room where there’s just the beeping of a machine and too much silence. Hollis lets go of my hand immediately when the nurse is gone, but I can’t see anything but Rhodes.

Sweet Rhodes, bruised and hurt, clipped up to a hundred wires and silent. My mate.

My knees feel weak, but I take a step forward, only for the bathroom door to open and Rochelle comes out. She is dressed in a short white dress, and her hair is perfectly falling in curls. Her eyes widen when she spots me, and Hollis is across the room in a second, putting his hand over her mouth. “She’s here for Rhodes and could save him. Please, please don’t say a word. Just walk out with me.”

“They are looking for her, and you!” she bursts out when he lets her go. “What in the name of the Wolf Gods are you doing?”

“Saving my brother.” His voice breaks. “Please. Just please.” I don’t like that he has to beg her. We should just kill her. I blink and shake my head at my Nexus’ thoughts. Sometimes it’s hard to know which opinions are hers and which are mine. She takes Hollis’s hand, and they both go into the bathroom together, likely so he can calm her down and get her to keep silent.

I feel myself shaking as I go over to Rhodes and sit on the bed. My hand trembles as I touch his hand. Please let this work. Please let my Nexus be good for once, do something good. I close my eyes and push for the bond between Rhodes and me, that deep connection born of the Gods, but it’s faded. I can’t reach him. I beg my Nexus to help, but she sits in my mind, silent andunmoving, and she doesn’t help at all. I should know better than to think she would do something good. Of course she wouldn’t.

I let go of his hand and lean forward, stroking his cheek. “I can’t wake him up.”

“It’s okay, Sun. It was a long shot but?—”

I cut him off. “I can’t, but there’s somewhere we can go and get something that will wake him up. I’ve seen someone wake up from a coma, someone brought back when they were nearly dead. It was my mother’s friend, and I was about nine. We were attacked by Vian, and I think she was nearly drained. My mother didn’t have any other friends, and my father wasn’t with us at the time. I had to help carry her to the car, and I knew there wasn’t much of her soul left. My mother told me our bloodline is accepted in, but my father couldn’t know about it.” I think of the silver box my mother gave me and how she told me it came from this place. I remember the afternoon she gave me it. We had been training all day and I was exhausted, hungry and downright depressed. She sat with me and gave me it, telling me to open it when I know there is no hope, when I might actually die for real. I laughed at her, because I died all the time, but she looked me in the eye and told me that burning to death might actually kill me, ripping me apart into a thousand pieces might do it, and that anyone can really die. Even Gods. So I took the box and did what she asked, even if the thought of opening it scared me more than drowning again the next day, and the day after that, and the day after that too. I shake my head of the memories. “The night market of the fairy folk.”

Finnegan blinks at me. “That’s a fairytale and so are the folk.”

“They aren’t fairytales,” I mutter, remembering the folk. “They are terrifying creatures, and the night market is real. I’m going to need money and a fuck ton of it for one of their healing potions.” I climb off the bed and go to the window. “The fullmoon is tomorrow, and that’s the only night the folk allow Nexus and Vian into their market to trade. We go tomorrow night.”

Chapter

Eleven

ANNIE

His parents are crying, and it makes me exasperated. They haven’t stopped crying since I got here and usually, I’d be soothing them or helping them with a kind smile and a good word. My mum would have done that and always taught me the same manners... but I can’t. I know I should be crying too. I can still feel my Nexus being ripped apart as my mate died. It was the worst pain I’ve ever felt, and I know nothing will ever be as bad as that pain. The tears in it feel like claw marks ripping down my soul, leaking nothing but raw suffering into my body. My Nexus hasn’t even come out of the shell it’s built around itself inside my mind, inside my chest and my heart. I don’t think she will for a long time. Some deep part of me feels numb, but the rest is filled with anger. The irked feeling is all-consuming. Kosma betrayed our people, he betrayed us, and he did it all when he was sleeping in my bed, telling me he loved me, and we had no secrets. He took me from Starlight City after planting a bomb in a house that killed Nexus. Those people who were our friends and people from the academy who I knew. I don’t have it in me to cry for him anymore and I want to scream.I want to scream at Mr and Mrs Marsenton that he was a liar, a bad person, and he betrayed me. I want to scream it for the world to know, but I don’t. He died for me and his parents are good people who don’t deserve to know what choices he made. It would destroy them, and I won’t do that. His secret dies with me and Gwenieve’s mates. “Are you well?”

Mr Marsenton’s voice cuts through the silence of the high-class show room lounge. I shuffle on the uncomfortable white couch I’ve been sitting on for hours. “I’m fine.”

“Well, of course she isn’t fine.” Mrs Marsenton shakes her head of dark brown hair. “You’ve lost your parents and your mate.” A wail echoes from my heart. From my Nexus within me. My mum and dad are gone and there is nothing but their bodies, cold in a morgue, left of them. They were good parents, but my mum was everything to me. There wasn’t a day that went past that she wasn’t kind and sweet. My childhood is a testament to her. I can only nod in response to Mrs Marsenton. “I miss your mum dearly. We were friends, all the way through our childhoods and adulthood. There wasn’t a moment where I didn’t look to her for guidance, and she felt the same. She was my best friend.” A hiccup of a sob echoes from her. “It was the greatest thing in the world when we found out our only children are going to be together.” Her mate holds her hand tightly. “We spent hours talking about possible grandchildren and everything we envisioned for your futures. I guess that’s just... it’s gone with him.”

There is a sharp knock on the door and Mr Marsenton stands. He looks like Kosma, the same blond hair and dark eyes. “Darling Annie, I know that you said that we should not let anyone know about you being here, but for your safety, I felt that was unwise advice. There’s someone that cares about you and your family, who has always been close friends with your father and mother.” Fear makes my blood run cold as I hearthe door open and I turn to see Paavo step in, closing it behind him. He is wearing a dark blue suit, shiny shoes and a frown as he meets my eyes. Paavo has always been around when I was growing up, at the house nearly every month to have dinner with my parents and every time he bought a gift for me. Unicorns, teddies and random toys that were things I liked at the time. I never liked him. There is something wrong about Paavo and I’m not sure how to explain the feeling I get when he is in the same room. Now I know what it is—he is a murderer and a betrayer. He stands still, all pretentious and smug. Onyx is different than he is, and I always wondered what Onyx would be like. Paavo never bought him to meet me in all the times he came to the house, and I never overheard him speaking about his only son. There’s nothing, just emptiness, in his eyes as he stares at me. The moment snaps and he comes straight in, his eyes looking over me like he wants to check to make sure that I’m okay. Like the bastard who killed my parents actually cares. He perches casually on the couch arm near me, and I look away to the long glass doors that overlook the massive fake grass garden, which is full of rangers.

“Thank you for telling me about Miss Donovan’s return to Starlight. Your loyalty is an honour.” I feel his eyes turn to me. “Now, where’s my son? I heard it is him we have to thank for your safe return.” When I don’t answer him, he carries on. “I only ask because of how concerned I am for his wellbeing. Sons are ending up dead, Vian are building in numbers, and he is my son. That alone puts him in the same danger you were in, Ann.”

“Annie, darling, he is only here to help you.” Mrs Marsenton’s soft voice soothes me. Not much. I know I can’t stay silent forever.

“I am very sorry for the loss of your child,” Paavo offers to her, to them both. “And you, poor young girl. To lose both yourfather and mother, and then your mate? Terrible. As you know, I was particularly close to your family.”

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