Page 116 of Hidden Kingdoms

Had I been the only one it had attacked? The thought was both comforting and disturbing. Could a black cloud really have enough conscience to target someone?

That made it twice now.

Don’t think too closely on that.

I needed sleep, I needed to lie down and go far, far away until none of this was real. The floor was starting to look like a good option the longer I denied my heavy eyelids. Alouette stopped, clicking her phone off before tucking it into one of her manypockets, mud and what I suspected was my blood splattered over her.

“I need sleep,” I slurred.

“No, Killer, you need to be healed first.”

I groaned at both her continued use of that nicknameandthe fact she was insisting I stay awake longer.

“Can they knock me out while they stitch me up?” I wasn’t worried about the pain, I just really needed to shut my mind off for a while, take a nice little nap. I needed to let my magik renew; I refused to believe I had lost its vastness permanently.

“Stitch you up?” the soldier next to me asked, but I had no energy to reply.

“Sometimes I forget you were stuck with the humans for so long.” Alouette laughed. “There will be nostitching, though by the looks of that, you’ll have a nice scar.”

She laughed again at my confused face before winking. “Don’t worry, Elodie, scars are sexy. Isn’t that right, Lev?”

“Erm…” The soldier next to me—Lev, I presumed—mumbled something as a whisper of wind played through my hair and my heart fluttered as my attention was drawn to an entrance into the palace.

A huge frame that belonged unmistakably to Marcellus, stepped through the door, and his heavy boots crunched against the gravel. Piercing blue eyes that awakened my mind zeroed in on me; he was close enough I could see the ash that was smudged across his arms and face.

Every soldier straightened the moment his feet touched the floor, but he ignored them all. My stomach knotted tighter the closer he got, and my magik raised its sleepy head in anticipation as another gust of wind pulled lightly at my hair. He was barely a metre from me now, an energy pulsing from him as his gaze travelled up and down my body, taking in the ruined mess myclothes were in, wet with both mud and the blood that was still slowly trickling from my wounds every so often.

As he stopped in front of me, I felt my whole world had paused. I sucked in a breath waiting for this monolith of a man to do something, react in some way. All sound had reduced to the loud thumping of my heart as I tilted my head up at him, and our eyes connected.

His gaze hardened into globes of ice, and his jaw clenched tightly, the muscle ticking as he took in the slashes down my back. He was so tall, I didn’t need to turn for him to see over my shoulder.

A rush of dizziness flooded my brain as the noise of the world filled my head again, and I stumbled as I tried to blink away the heaviness clouding my mind. Lev’s hand shot out to keep me upright, and his hand found my shoulder the same moment a larger, much more forceful grip landed on my hips.

The contact sent heat racing through me, chasing at the chill in the air and jumbling my thoughts more than they already were. Marcellus’ hands flexed tightly, and his face—which was now so close to my own—moved barely a fraction in Lev’s direction before the soldier wrenched his hand away as though it had been burnt, muttering something as he moved away.

Swaying again as the incessant pain began to feel too much, even the distraction of Marcellus not enough to keep it at bay, my eyes closed as an arm banded carefully across my back. A second slid behind my knees before I was lifted from the ground.

A whimper left me as one of the cuts was pulled, and he carefully arranged me against him to cause the least amount of pain. Part of me was dying of embarrassment that I was being carried like a baby and on the verge of passing out, when everyone else seemed fine.

A bigger part of me was too busy steadily inhaling his crisp, clean scent, now laced with something reminiscent of thosemoments after a lightning storm and marvelling at how every breath soothed an ache inside me to care. I nuzzled into him without shame, fully intending on blaming it on the delirium of blood loss if anyone decided to bring it up, feeling his chest rumble beneath me as my tired magik did its own tiny happy dance.

The light behind my closed eyes darkened, and I knew we had moved inside, the coolness of the stones chilling my skin, and I pressed myself closer to him in response—the heat that radiated from him, the rumble of his chest a comfort I didn’t expect. The steady rhythm of his steps rocked me gently as we continued through the palace, but he held me carefully enough that the movement didn’t disturb my wounds, though I could feel fabric sticking to my skin uncomfortably.

“You’re going to get blood on you,” I managed to murmur into his chest.

“Believe me, Little One, that’s not what matters right now.”

44

CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

ELODIE

Once again, I found myself waking up on my back, and unfortunatelynotin a way that would suggest something enjoyable was about to happen.

Blinking the blurriness from my eyes, there was no blue sky above me. This time, I was looking up at a stark, white ceiling. The clamour of soldiers replaced with the occasional soft beeping noise and the muffled conversation taking place over me.

I blinked again, willing my eyes to focus before I lifted a hand to rub at them, sensing whoever was around me zero in on my movement. The quiet voices stopped, and as my eyes cleared enough for me to see who was hovering around me, the rest of my senses slammed into me.

---