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His eyes flashed open, and he jackknifed up in the bed, causing her to fall back. In a swift movement, he caught her around the waist before she could fall off the bed. Lowering his forehead to her shoulder, he shuddered.
She didn’t dare move. Her hands rested on his large shoulders, her legs straddling his thigh, but she didn’t sit. She wasn’t sure if he had his wits about him yet. Her heart hammered in her chest from the near fall into the pile of broken glass.
Taking another long inhale, he lifted his head to meet her eyes.
She brushed away the pieces of his disheveled hair that stuck to his sweaty forehead. His eyebrows drew in. Did he not want her to touch him? The thought made her feel sad.
“I wish you’d tell me,” she whispered.
“Tell you what?”
“What you dream about when it hurts.”
His arms tightened around her in response to her words, and she expected him to retreat, but he surprised her. “Alright.” He shifted her to his side and slid over to make room for her on the bed.
The covers were damp with sweat, so she pushed them down with her feet and sat with her back to the cool wall, crossing her legs and putting her hands in her lap. He moved to sit beside her, and she did her best not to enjoy all the naked skin on display, since he wore only a pair of athletic shorts.
“Since you know the truth now, I don’t have to keep this from you.” He bent his left leg, wrapping his hand over his shin. His other hand rested on the right thigh of his other leg that extended over the side of the bed. “When we went to Europe, it wasn’t a school trip. Well, it was, but it wasn’t something like a field trip. We went there to meet the Blackthorn Clan, the leaders of our kind—”
“They told me about them.”
“Did they tell you about Europe?”
She shook her head.
“Well, we went there to see them because the Order got arrested for the shit they pulled with Blaire.”
“Who is the Order? What did they do to Blaire?”
Aiden tapped his leg. “Technically, there are three Orders in the world, but they go by different names. A group of Vasirian who oversee the area of the world they are located. The members on this side of the world also acted as the administration for Blackthorn Academy. There are a few schools like ours in the world, and each leadership group oversees them.” His eyes cut to hers. “Until now. After they experimented on Blaire trying to discover the secrets of how she could be a Korrena as a human, and their role in helping Vincent with Blaire’s kidnapping, they got apprehended and removed.”
“I remember the administration got in trouble, but I didn’t know they were the Order.”
He nodded. “We went to Europe to back up our witness statements, but a lot of things happened. While we were there, Riley and Blaire were captured and nearly died. If it wasn’t for Dom finding them, there’s no telling what would have happened.”
She didn’t know anything. All this time she spent at UGA stressing if accounting was the right career path, her friends were on the other side of the ocean fighting to survive. It made her feel useless and guilty for thinking her problems were actual problems. They didn’t compare to what happened to Blaire.
“The rogues — Did they tell you about them?” At her nod, he said, “They attacked Blackthorn Manor to capture Blaire while we were meeting in the throne room. They don’t want her to live. They don’t want the prophecy to come to light.”
“The magic thing?”
“Yeah.” He nodded, his gaze unfocused across the room.
She was glad they’d explained the history and prophecy to her. Something told her Aiden was having a hard time relaying everything to her. The information was a lot to digest. She couldn’t fathom trying to explain it all to someone so utterly clueless.
It made little sense to her for people to want to kill Blaire if she was destined to save their species. Did they want their kind to go extinct?
“During the attack, the clan and the rest of us had to fight. There were so many of them,” he said, his voice going distant as he stared forward, unblinking. She suspected he wasn’t in the room with her anymore, but back in the manor, in his mind.
“Someone knocked out Lukas. They caught Blaire. When I tried to help…” The rise and fall of his chest grew heavier, his breaths becoming shorter. “Riley tried to get to me, but Seth and Dom wouldn’t let her. She had to watch,” he said, his voice rough with restrained emotion. A single tear slid down his cheek, sparkling in the moonlight. “She watched me die. Watched them press a gun to my temple and put a bullet in my head.”
His tongue peeked out of his mouth, moving over his lips to moisten them. “Blaire’s magic brought me back. I don’t know where I was. It felt like a sort of limbo. Floating in space, waiting on wherever I was supposed to go.” His burning gaze turned to her. “I heard you crying.”
She blinked. “What?”
“I thought it was Riley crying for me, but in my dreams since, a voice told me my Korrena was waiting for me. I just knew it was my Korrena mourning me. You mourning me. I think it was symbolic, not literal. I mean, you knew nothing about us or what a Korrena was.” He shook his head and looked across the room again. “When I woke up, Blaire had passed out. She used all her strength and magic to heal me. To bring me back from the dead. She doesn’t even remember it.”
The silence that fell was heavy, only broken moments later by his meek laugh. “I’ll tell you what, though. They told me what Blaire did to the man who shot me.” He put his head against the wall. “Her therapist told her it might have resulted from shock, but I think it was also the strength she’s gained being in our world. Not physical strength, mind you. Mental. She went off. Stabbed the rogue to death until Lukas pulled her off him.”
