Page 44 of Shadow Caster
She blinked slowly, her gaze sharpening.
“Lottie!” Harmon came barreling in and fell to his knees beside us. He gathered his sister into his arms and squeezed. “Shit. You scared the life out of me.” He pulled back to look into her face. “What happened? How did you get here?”
Lottie stared up at his face. “Where am I?”
“The hothouse,” Harmon said.
“You were unconscious,” Thomas added.
Master Hyde appeared behind Harmon.
“We should get her back to the med bay.”
Harmon made to scoop her up, but she cringed and backed up into me. “No. Don’t touch me. Who are you?” She stared in confusion at Harmon, then up at Thomas and the other shadow cadets hovering behind him. “Who are you people?”
Harmon paused in his action. “Lottie, it’s me. Harmon. Your brother.”
Her expression was pained. “Lottie? Who? … I don’t know you.”
“Back away from her,” Master Hyde said.
“Like hell,” Harmon growled. “She’s my sister. She probably banged her head. She’s confused.” He made to scoop her up again.
Lottie opened her mouth and screamed.
Fifteen
My eyes snapped open to a blood-red room as the sun went down. I swung my legs out of bed, grabbed my shower stuff, and headed out the door. I needed to get dressed and find Harmon and Thomas before training.
I needed to know how Lottie was doing.
Master Hyde had rushed Lottie to the med bay while Harmon stood stock-still, his face a mask of torment.
She didn’t remember him. Didn’t remember us. Didn’t fucking remember anything.
They were holding her in the med bay while they tried to figure out what had happened to her.
But one thing was clear, people didn’t just lose their memories and their identities. Something had done this to her, and it was still out there. I needed to check on Harmon and find out what the hell they were doing about Lottie.
He was an ass most of the time, but he was hurting right now, and for some reason, I wanted to be there for him.
Shower bag and clothes in hand, I headed out of my room and down the short corridor to the bathroom. The door opened before I could turn the handle, and Master Hyde stepped out wreathed in steam. His torso was bare and beaded with moisture. Droplets skated down his powerful chest, over the ink that wound its way across his pectoral to skim the base of his neck. Droplets skidded over his eight-pack and down to kiss the lip of the towel hugging the V at his hips.
Heat climbed up from my toes and blossomed in my head. I tore my gaze up to his face, and my breath locked in my throat. Beads of water hovered on his lips and lashes, they licked at his scars, softening them somewhat. But it was his hooded gaze that trapped me. There was heat hidden in the depths, a dangerous devastation that called to me, inviting me to drown in it.
“It’s all yours.” His voice was gruff, as if these were his first words of the evening.
His tone had a delicious abrasiveness that rubbed against my senses and made my skin tingle with the need to be touched.
He made to step around me and his citrus scent hit me, short-circuiting my brain. I sidestepped to block him. Fuck. Wrong way. We both stepped the other way, once again blocking each other.
Shit.
“Stop.” His hands came up and cupped my shoulders.
The heat of his hands seeped through my shirt and kissed my skin, making it blush. My breath caught and then I was trapped in his blue-green gaze, being pulled into the darkness of his darkening pupils.
“Don’t move.” His voice was low and husky.
