“I don’t know. Where is Kait? I thought he was with you?”
“He went to get David. He was in a car accident, and a pair of Shadoewynne paramedics were attempting to take him away. Kait opened a gateway to Shadoewynne and said that he was going to jump from there to where David was so he could bring him back the same way.” One hand found my braid and started spinning it. A random thought occurred to me. “How are we safe in here? Kait made a gateway out, and said he was going to make a gateway back. Can the Svikari come in the same way?”
“Kait set up the enchantments, and set it up so only his magic can make gateways through it. He knows what he is doing. It will be fine, Babe. Are you hungry? I’ll make us some food.”
I just nodded. My mind was already running in circles again. A little bit later, Travis sat a plate in front of me. There was a sandwich and chips on it.
“Come on, Babe, you need to eat.” I barely heard him; I was so caught up in my head.
He tapped on my arm until I looked at him. “Are you with me, Babe?” I nodded. “You need to eat. Please?”
I mechanically picked up the sandwich, took a bite and began to chew. I wasn’t tasting it at all, but I ate the whole sandwich and the chips. Travis pushed a drink at me. I drank, then stared into space some more. Travis sighed as he watched me.
I don’t know how long I sat there like that, but eventually, Travis picked me up and carried me into a nook in the back that had a bed. He put me in it, climbed in with me, and pulled the covers up over us. He gathered me in his arms. I buried my face in his shirt and cried. After a while, the tears were out of my system, and finally was able to ask the question that had been bugging me. “Travis, what is taking them so long? Shouldn’t they be back by now?”
He rubbed my back as he replied. “It takes a lot of magic to do four gateways in a short period of time, and they may have to deal with the cops at the accident site. I’m sure all is well.”
I could see a kaleidoscope of light on the far wall. I hit Travis. “Move! Move! They’re back!”
Once Travis got out of my way, I scrambled up, and ran back to the couch, which was next to where they were just stepping out of the light. I was about to throw my arms around them both, but Kait was dragging David through. His head was hanging, and blood was dripping from his face.
“Are you okay?” Frantically, I tried to find the source of the blood without touching him.
David wearily looked up and tried to smile. “I hit my head on the windshield during the accident. You know how bad head wounds bleed. I’ll be fine. It’s a good thing Kait showed up when he did, though. They were going to force me to go with the paramedics, and I don’t think they were going to take me to the hospital.” His voice was barely loud enough to hear.
Kait snorted. “You wouldn’t have let them take you. I just gave you an excuse to leave.”
“What about the car?” My ever-practical mind was stuck on the small, stupid details.
“I’m sure it was totaled. They were loading it on to a flat bed. They can have it.” Kait answered for David, since David’s eyes were rolling back in his head.
“Kait! He’s passing out!”
“Travis, call Janelle and have her meet us down here. We need her to heal David, and make sure he doesn’t have any worse injuries. I can stop the bleeding, but that is about the extent of my healing abilities.”
Kait laid David on the couch and put his hands on his head. I ran to get some water and towels to clean him up. Now that I had something to do, I could focus past my fear. It probably helped that all my guys were here and mostly safe.
By the time we had the bleeding stopped, the blood cleaned from his face, and the ruined shirt off, there was a knock on the door. Kait put his hand on the door for a second, then opened it. Janelle rushed in, Kait closed the door and reset the ward.
Janelle didn’t stop until she was at David’s side. She sunk to the floor next to him. “You need to stop getting hurt, Son.”
Her words caused fear to shoot through me again. She was going to hate me. It was all my fault her son kept getting hurt. Arms wrapped around me from behind as I was pulled into a hard body. A Christmassy scent surrounded me as Kait whispered in my ear. “Princess, she doesn’t blame you and neither do we. Stop blaming yourself.” He kissed my neck and I melted into his arms. I was tired. Tired of running, tired of fighting my feelings, and tired of being scared.
I turned in my arms. “We need to end this, Kait. What can we do to stop this, once and for all?”
He stared into my eyes for a minute before leaning in to kiss me tenderly. Then he said, “I don’t know. You were right. We have to crush them to the point where the survivors know there is no hope for their cause. It’s taken them over fifty years to build up to this moment. Something within their ranks has changed, and we need to figure out what it is.”
Janelle rose up from the floor. “He’s all fixed. He just needs to sleep to regain his strength. He had significant bruising, but nothing that was life-threatening. What happened?”
Kait sighed before letting me go and answering. “It was a hit and run. We think it was the Svikari. They
