As if hearing my thoughts, he turned to the onlookers and without raising his voice, ordered everyone to clear the floor. Not just the hallway. The entire floor.
Clearly, his confidence in me was failing. But I tried not to let that get to me.
I blinked hard to clear the black spots in my vision. God I was tired.
Come on, Inarus. I’m here to help.
My arms shook from the effort of holding myself in place as I crawled across the floor into Inarus’ room. This was no hands-and-knees crawl. No, the jerk was forcing me to army crawl across the cold concrete floor barefoot and in yoga pants. Not my best look. And yeah, I’d been on the floor before Declan had ordered everyone out.
Not that we were actually alone. Without looking, I knew at least Dia and our Pack healers—Frankie and Annabeth—had stayed behind.
For someone on his death bed, Inarus’ mental strength was a hell of a lot stronger than I could have anticipated. I tried to tell myself that was a good thing but the stabbing sensation in my skull didn’t agree with me.
“Stop trying to reach him physically. You don’t need physical contact to get through to him.”
What the hell did she know?
Okay, obviously more then I did. I was such an idiot. She knew a hell of a lot more than I did when it came to this sort of thing. So why was I being so dense?
Probably because I really disliked her. Dammit, I hated when she was right. And she was probably right about this, but there was only one way to find out. I heaved an exasperated sigh and took a deep breath as I slid my back against the wall.
Another psychic force rammed into my skull and forced the air from my lungs. I squeezed my eyes shut and fought furiously to hold my mental shields. His psychic energy waged war against me. It hurt. God, it hurt.
“He’s too strong!” I gritted my teeth and pressed my back against the smooth surface of the wall. Under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t have admitted he was stronger than I was but in this, he absolutely was. There was no denying it.
“He’s in a coma. Pull yourself together and reach out to him. He knows you. Trusts you—for some stupid reason.” The last was mumbled with clear annoyance.
My head throbbed. I wasn’t going to be able to stay here much longer. The strain was rapidly becoming too much and if Inarus knocked me unconscious, no one would be able to get to me.
Wouldn’t that be my luck?
“Come on. Come on. Think.” I needed to reach him on a psychic level. But that wasn't something I'd ever tried to do before. Hell, up until today I didn’t even realize I could reach him on a psychic level. I’d assumed that was something reserved for telepaths but according to Dia, all psykers could form mental connections with one another. Telepaths were the ones who could forge those same mental connections with non-psykers and also influence them.
I had no clue where to begin because this was not something we’d ever even considered covering in my training. Dia said it took an insane amount of trust to allow someone within your mental shields in order to communicate telepathically.
Lets hope Inarus trusted me enough to bring down his walls.
Eyes still closed, I focused on the telekinetic force battering against my skull and brushed my own mind against it. It was a fast and featherlight touch. The one you’d use when touching a pan that might still be hot.
For a split second, the pressure eased, but the moment of relief didn’t last. Inarus’ mind slammed into me full force.
Air whooshed out my lungs.
I couldn’t breathe.
“Aria?” Declan called to me.
It took a concentrated effort to turn my head toward his voice. Crouched in the doorway, he had lines of concern etched into his handsome face.
I tried to form words but my throat refused to cooperate. I opened and closed my mouth several times but nothing came out. My vision blurred. I struggled to keep my head up.
“Aria, focus on me. Listen to my voice. Do not pass out.” That was an order with the full weight of the Alpha behind it.
Declan’s words rattled my bones. He was my mate, not my Alpha, but whatever power he’d put into that order reverberated through me.
My head spun. How I'd managed to remain upright I didn’t know. The floor was looking awfully inviting right about now.
My connection to Declan through the mate bond was there, but it steadily became hazy. I needed to pull myself together, and fuck what Dia said because there was no way I was going to get through to Inarus without some sort of physical connection. I just wasn’t strong enough. Maybe if I’d had time to sleep and recover from todays excises but I doubted it.
Sitting here on the floor and staring at his bed just wasn’t going to cut it. Not in this instance.
Sucking in a lungful of air, I pushed myself onto my hands and knees. I braced myself for the onslaught I knew would come and mentally knocked on the door to Inarus’ mind.
The storm surging around me paused. I knocked again and inched my way closer to the bed.
Questions I couldn’t grasp filled in my mind. Echoes of his voice swirled around me. I pushed closer but then the pressure doubled down, dropping me to my stomach. Cold stone met my cheek and I lay there for a few minutes.
“Come on—” I groaned and pressed my forehead to the floor.
I knocked again. Nothing.
Sweat dripped
