Page 105 of Fated to Monsters

I didn’t think it was possible to hate Parla any more, and somehow, here I am, seething with the insatiable desire to wrap my hands around her throat until her eyes bulge from their sockets.

“Birdie, talk to me.” Bo smooths the hair from my cheek and stares into my eyes. His touch is soft and gentle and unlike how he normally is.

Am I still dreaming?

Taking in the room, I recognize that I’m in Sydney’s home—not in Prania.

My heart picks up its pace as I frantically put the pieces together.

“Wh-where’s Dash and Wes? Did they make it out?”

“They’re alive and well. They ran out of matches downstairs, so Wes went to light the fire. Dash is checking in on Jade.”

Uncontrollable tears tumble down my cheeks. “Everest,” I whisper, neither a question nor a statement.

“Don’t worry about him. He’s going to be fine.”

My eyes widen and my mouth drops open. “Fine? He survived?”

Bo’s cheeks turn up into the faintest smile. “They don’t know what you did, or how you did it, but he was partially healed when he came back. You saved him, Birdie.”

“We saved each other,” I mutter the same words that he and Jade had shared once before.

“Are you okay?” Bo runs his rough palm over my shoulder and down my arm. “Are you in any pain?”

“I’m fine.” I reposition myself, ignoring the aches in my body. They’re nothing compared to the thought that I had lost any of my people.

My people. Is that what they are?

But how can I celebrate their lives when I never freed Prania of its tyrant, Parla?

Disappointment fills me anyway. How many more has she killed in the time I’ve spent unconscious?

“What’s with the face, Birdie? What is it?”

“I…I have to go back,” I tell him. “I have to finish what I started. Even if it’s too late.” I scoot out from under the covers and swing my legs off the side of the bed, noting that I’m no longer wearing my armor. Someone must have undressed and cleaned me prior to putting me here.

Bo doesn’t stop me, but he says, “It’s done, Wren. It’s over.”

I meet his dark stare. “What do you mean?”

Footsteps patter on the stairs outside our room, drawing our attention temporarily.

Dash rounds the corner first, his face breaking out into a contagious smile the second he’s through the door. Wes is on his heels, the sheer sight of him calming my raging nerves. Bo might have said that they were fine, but seeing them in the flesh is something else entirely.

“You’re awake,” Dash says while rushing toward me. “Do you need anything? Water? Food? I could get you some cheese.”

I wrap my arms around his torso and breathe him in. “This is all I need,” I mutter into his chest.

He releases me and presses a soft kiss on my forehead. "You had us worried."

I shift my sights on Wes and hop off the edge of the bed, doing my best to walk normally over to him. My body throbs but it isn’t anything a couple days won’t mend. My injuries were much more severe when I was in Prania, meaning only one thing—Wes healed me.

“You should get back in bed.” Wes cups both sides of my face between his hands and runs his thumbs over my cheeks. He pulls me closer and kisses the tip of my nose before dragging me toward him. “I thank the Angels that you’re okay.”

I allow myself one full minute of his embrace, my body melting into his and reveling in the reality that all four of us made it out alive. But once that minute is up, I break away and stand on my own. “Bo said it was done. What did he mean?” I glance around at my men, waiting for one of them to answer me.

Bo reaches for my hand and tugs me back to the bed. I comply and sit along the edge, grateful for the ability to get off my feet again. I’ve been worn out after battle before, but this is something else entirely. It’s almost like my insides were taken out, thrown in a blender, and put back in without any consideration of where they belong.

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