Page 104 of Hearts of Stone

He jerked rigid in Harry’s arms, and I was sure I’d fucked up, but before I could pull my hands away, Harry grabbed my wrist to stop me, his eyes wide.

“No, look.”

Daniel became incandescent, glowing bright like a match when it’s first lit, and the illumination made every injury all the more visible. But even as the bright glow drew attention to the damage, my power started to make repairs. At first, it was just small scratches fading and then disappearing altogether, then bruises turning from black to green and then to yellow. Larger wounds closed up and his breath… That first shuddering exhale had me finally letting my own breath out. But every action has an equal and opposite action.

And I was suddenly hit, full force.

The world lost its solidity, spinning around me in a sickening spiral that made my stomach lurch. My bones ached and, across my skin, the shadows of bruises appeared. My hands shook and my fingers twisted in strange shapes. It was as if in order to heal his pain, I had to take on his.

“Jade!” Graven growled, but Carrick knelt down to catch me as I started to fall and, in doing so, my hands lost connection with Daniel.

The world had been going darker and darker around the edges, my field of vision pulsing in time with my heart. But as my hands were pulled free, I saw that woman again, standing off at the side and watching me with a sad smile.

“You’ve got to be careful, luv,” she told me. “As women we’re asked to give and to give and to give, with no mind paid to what it costs us. Your boy will be alright until the medics arrive. Best to cut this off now.”

And at her word, the light in my hands died away. Daniel slumped back against Harry, letting out the tiniest of moans, which had me scrambling forward.

“Daniel? Daniel?”

He couldn’t answer us, but the sound of ambulance sirens let me know that he’d soon be in safe hands.

“Jade, we must go,” Graven said. When I turned around, each one of them looked… darker, as if the light had been sucked from them. Seneca looked wide-eyed and drawn while Carrick tried to muster a smile but failed. “The medics are coming, so we cannot be seen. In addition, healing is the most energy-intensive of all magic. We must go to the roof, take stone—”

“Go,” I said, my brow creasing, my hand reaching for them, as if to make a lie of my words. I was just like everyone else. I wanted the people I loved by my side during a crisis, but I was used to the fact that it couldn’t always happen. I shoved any mawkish thoughts to one side as the ambulance came rushing up to the gates. I heard the gargoyles disappear up into the night sky with a whoosh, and then the vehicle came to a stop in front of us.

“We foundhim at the gate, beaten within an inch of his life,” Harry explained through gritted teeth.

“The police have been called?” the ambulance officer asked as he scanned Daniel’s body quickly. The way his brows drew down made clear just how serious this was.

“They have,” Harry confirmed.

“Tell ’em to meet us at the hospital,” the ambo said, with a sharp nod of his head. “Who’s riding with him?”

“Me.” My hand shot up like I was still in school and at the sudden movement I felt the borrowed pain ripple through my body. “Me, I’m coming.”

“Alright, get in,” he said with a sharp nod, before pulling a gurney from the back of the ambulance.

Chapter 57

Jade

It was now I realised one of the major drawbacks of having monster boyfriends. I was standing in the waiting room in a pair of borrowed nurses’ scrubs, just…waiting. And that’s all I could do. I’d spoken to everyone who needed details of what had happened, I’d filled out all the forms required. I’d made clear I’d pay for whatever care Daniel needed. But… I didn’t want to be standing there by myself.

That thought made me feel small, weak, pathetic, but I didn’t have it in me to be strong. Seeing Daniel wheeled in on the gurney, then transferred to a hospital bed with snowy white sheets had driven it all home. No matter what I’d done, no matter what I had achieved, he was still so very hurt. They were working on him now, and I was just—

“Jade!” I turned around to see a flustered-looking Mellors with Harry in tow, whose khaki shirt was still stained with blood. Mellors rushed over, placed his hands on my shoulders and looked into my eyes. “Are you alright? I got the news and—”

“Jade Barlow?” We all turned around to see two police officers approaching us, one with a notebook in his hand. “You came in with Daniel Ross: is that correct?”

“Yes.” I walked over to meet them, then my words flooded out in a big rush. “He was hurt by this guy he was seeing. He was left at our gates like this once before, but never like this. He said he was going out on a date, but he…” Mellors squeezed my shoulder as my throat closed up. “But he…”

“Alright, let's take this somewhere a little more private,” the officer said, “and start back at the start. So you believe Daniel is in a relationship with his attacker?”

The story,or as much of it as I was familiar with, came out in chunks that felt like they fought their way free, leaving great rents in my throat, but I forced them out anyway.

And I wasn’t even the victim.

The female police officer offered me a tissue when I started to cry, but I waved it away. I didn’t deserve that or anything else; not while Daniel lay in that bed.

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