Page 97 of Fanged Embrace
And that wasn’t the only problem.
The outside world was fraying. The Leyore coven’s coalition had become a cracked veneer; some elf factions were pulling back after the organization’s strike. Witches were shielding their coven houses instead of scouting for more facilities. Every meeting, every whispered report confirmed what we all already understood: The organization was winning the cold war, and we were losing our chance to wipe them out.
Some nights, the pressure of both truths woke me beforedawn, heart pounding long before Laurie’s nightmares flared to life. Other nights—like tonight—her scream beat me to consciousness.
For about a week now, Laurie had been sleeping in my bed instead of retreating to the guest room. We never spoke about it. There was no invitation, no awkward announcement. She’d dozed beside me after that first night of intimacy, and that was that. We slept tangled together under the covers ever since. I wasn’t about to complain.
It felt too natural to question. Too perfect.
So when her scream ripped through my dreams, I was already there, jarred awake just inches from her thrashing body and rolling over to crush her to my chest.
“It’s not working,” Laurie rasped the moment I wrapped her in my arms. Her skin was slick with sweat, hair stuck to her temples. When she looked at me with tear-stained cheeks, I could see the horrible visions playing behind her eyes. “River, it’s not working. It’s still there. It’s stillbad?—”
“Shhh.” I pressed her head to my shoulder, projecting calm in steady waves. “You’re still going to have bad nights from time to time; that’s normal. We’re not at the finish line yet.”
It was times like these when I could kick myself for daring to let myself drift off. But the extractions were taking their toll on my body, and I had to snag some rest occasionally or I’d be rendered completely useless.
It was a balancing act I had not yet perfected.
Laurie’s aura flared like a bonfire, then ebbed as I siphoned the worst of the panic. I swept my own aura over the perimeter of her mind—the flickering embers of a dying blaze—and cooled them, one bright fleck at a time.
“Itisworking,” I whispered as her breathing slowed. “You’ve just got to hold out a little longer.”
Her fingers fisted at my back, and she heaved in a despairing breath, still frazzled by memories of smoke andflame. “How long? How long am I supposed to keep living like this?”
I leaned back just enough to meet her gaze. “As long as it takes for us to heal your mind.”
When she rolled onto her back, I followed, cupping her cheek with one gentle hand and anchoring her to the here and now. “We keep going—one shard at a time. Until the fire’s out.”
Laurie sniffed and dashed a hand across her eyes, then rolled over again until she was flush against my chest, burrowing into the side of my neck.
“Tell me something stupid,” she murmured, and her voice came muffled through my tousled hair. “I could use a distraction.”
“All right.” I shifted onto my side and propped my head on one hand, the other trailing gentle fingers down her back. “Back when I first joined the Leyore coven, I was way more stand-offish than I am today.” I leaned down and pecked a kiss on her forehead. “Kinda like you were when we first met, just not as… jumpy.”
“Jumpy is generous,” she grumbled into my arm.
“Don’t hijack my story.” I blew a curl from my eyes and tilted my head back. “Anyway, I was super suspicious of Jordan and pretty much everyone else in the coven, and I did nothing to hide that fact. They all went out of their way to make me feel welcome and I was a complete ass about it.”
Laurie’s comment came wry and dry against my shoulder. “Sounds familiar.”
“Hey, at least you had genuine reasons to be wary of me.” I poked at her ribs and she swatted my hand away. “I was just… so used to being alone, I had no idea how to let anyone in. I thought Jordan was being kind out of a sense of duty. It took me years to realize that ‘kind’ was just her natural state.”
“This story isn’t stupid,” Laurie cut in. “It’s sweet.”
“This is just the preface—bear with me.” I dragged myselfupright and propped my back against the headboard while Laurie lay her head in my lap. My hands rested on her head, fiddling with her hair while I dredged up dusty memories.
“So anyway, things continued like that for a while. Jordan would try to include me in meetings, and I would sit quietly in the corner and occasionally offer snarky remarks. Then one day, she’s hanging out with this Leyore noble—some rich asshat who was talking down to her. In his eyes, Jordan’s brother was this great ruler and Jordan was just some loose cannon who didn’t know how to hold her tongue.”
My lips pursed at the memory, at how irritated I’d been to see someone treat her so poorly—how ashamed I’d been to realize that was howIhad been treating her too.
“Then all of a sudden, I get a vision. I see this guy tripping over his own coat on the way down the stairs—in front of a bunch of coven members—and I think: perfect. I hope he face-plants so hard he gets floor polish on his tonsils.”
Laurie tilted her head to glance at me with raised brows. “And it happened?”
“Not quite how I expected.” I grimaced, but a grin tugged at my lips. “I followed him because I wanted to see it for myself, and I dragged Jordan along with me so she could see it too. I was so focused on what Ithoughtwas going to happen, that I wasn’t watching my step.”
Laurie was already giggling, quiet huffs of breath when she realized where this story was going.
