Page 17 of Trial of Three
I turn slowly, facing the male standing half-naked in the lantern light. Coal looks like he’s just come out of battle, his blond hair wild, sweat coating his skin, and a deep, still-bleeding gash crossing from his shoulder over the hard swell of his pectoral and stopping dangerously close to his nipple.
Coal’s gaze follows mine. He stares at the blood for a moment, a small smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. His lower part twitches in confirmation of having enjoyed the experience leading up to that particular injury.
Heat floods my cheeks as an answering pang pulses between my legs. What we did... what he did to me. What I did to him. The magic and power that roared through us both. So right. And so very wrong. It was wrong to have enjoyed it. I turn back to the door and stride toward it.
The room swims, the magic draining from me like water through a sieve. I only realize Coal has moved when the floor shifts and the male’s solid arms catch me before the chamber dumps me onto its floor.
With one arm behind my shoulder blades and the other supporting my knees, Coal returns me to his bed, settling me with surprising gentleness on the mussed sheets. After a heartbeat of hesitation, he retrieves the fallen blanket and covers me with it. “Sleep here tonight, mortal.”
I open my mouth to protest but the words shift to a different sort when, instead of settling down on the mattress beside me, Coal lies down on the floor. “What are you doing?”
“I told you to remain in my chamber,” Coal says matter-of-factly. “It seems proper to give you the bed.”
“It seems proper for you to get your ass into said bed first,” I say, my indignation waking me for a moment.
Coal stiffens.
I sigh, my jaw clenching hard enough that it’s an effort of will to get it to move. “You need not hug me, Coal,” I say, turning my back to him in emphasis. Trying to sound as if Coal’s revulsion at the thought of brushing up against me is of no consequence. “You don’t have to touch me at all. But for the sake of my ethics, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t stretch out on a stone floor either.”
After a moment I feel the bed shift, Coal’s body settling reluctantly on the other side of the mattress. As I drift off into sleep, I realize that the heavy weight of the male’s arm has somehow settled across me, while Coal himself slumbers with deep, easy breaths.
* * *
I waketo shooting pain scorching my shoulder and streaking along my body. My shoulder, my back, my ribs. As if I’ve been in battle. Which, given the state of the dresser, is rather close to reality.
Beside me, Coal is sleeping on his stomach, one heavy arm draped over my hips as his back rises and falls in a deep, slow rhythm, his sculpted muscles shifting slightly with each inhalation. I’ve never seen the warrior sleep calmly before, I realize. Even when traveling, Coal woke at the slightest movement, the merest of sounds. Now, his beautiful face, framed by a wild mane of blond hair, looks content. Amidst Coal’s scars, I find fresh gashes and bruises that make my face heat with memory. Four parallel lines slashing across Coal’s scapula like claw marks are half-healed already.
Unlike me.
I shut my eyes, trying to strategize a means of moving that will not make me scream. With last night’s intense connection to Coal broken, the last of his magic has drained from my veins overnight, the preternatural strength and resilience I echoed now completely gone. I go to slide out from under the male’s arm and hiss as the motion jostles my shoulder.
Coal wakes in an instant, his blue eyes clear and surveying the world for danger before finding it beneath his own hand. He pulls back from me quickly, as if drawing back from a hornet’s nest.
Right. Fine. No matter. At least with him awake, I need not be subtle about moving. Wishing the door were much closer to the bed, I try to gather my legs beneath me.
Coal’s heavy palms still my torso before I can move. His nostrils flare delicately as he takes in my scent. Then he curses colorfully.“How bad is it, mortal?” he demands.
“Good morning to you too,” I mutter.
Coal pulls the blanket off me, ignoring my indignant squeak as he rips his shirt off my body as well. His calloused and impossibly gentle hands probe along my skin. “I think I cracked several ribs,” he whispers, the color gone from his face. “As for your shoulder...” He flexes the joint, drawing another gasp from my throat. “Stars, mortal. It’s a hair away from dislocation.”
Broken ribs? Dislocated shoulder? I blink. “How—”
“How? Do you truly require a recap?” Coal runs his hands through his loose hair then turns tightly to sink his fist into the already cracked bedpost. His body trembles, his hands clenched as his gaze brushes my body again. “I don’t know what to say,” he says softly. “You can exact whatever retribution you wish, but we both know it won’t be enough. I’ve hurt—I’veinjuredyou, mortal. There isn’t a way to make it right.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” I wince, shifting myself into a sitting position. “First, there were two of us playing yesterday. And second, how come you aren’t ever this upset about walloping me in training?”
Coal blinks at the question, his crystal-blue eyes opening and closing like an owl’s. “Because when we train, I hit what I’m aiming for.” He lowers his head, his shoulders dropping. “That was not the case last night. I wasn’t in control.”
No. Neither of us was. “I thought that was the whole point,” I mutter. I reach toward Coal but my hand finds empty air as the male vaults off the bed and strides to the door, from which I now hear low lupine whines intercepted with displeased growls.
“That’s Shade,” Coal says, confirming my suspicions. “He cannot hear us, but his wolf smells his mate hurt. And that I hurt her.”
Before I can point out that this seems like a very good reason to keep the door shut, Coal pulls it open.
Two hundred pounds of angry predator rushes through the opening and crosses the room in two large leaps, knocking Coal flat on his back. The door slamming closed in his wake, Shade lands on the bed beside me, regaining his fae form in a flash of furious light. His nostrils flare, his yellow gaze fevered as he brushes my cheek. His masculine face turns deadly as he spins on Coal, eyes flashing with bloodthirst.
A shiver runs down my spine. My heart pounds as the air between the males crackles. I try and fail to rise, my chest clenching around lungs that suddenly have trouble drawing air. “Stop it, you idiots!”
