Tears filled my eyes. Someone knocked on the door. I swiped at my face and took a gulping breath. “I’m awake.”
The door flew open. Sophie shot inside. She screamed and ran at me.
Her body blanketed me. It did more to warm me than the sun could.
Nanna arrived a moment later, followed by Jacqueline.
Sophie snuggled under the covers with me. Nanna and Jacqueline sat at the foot of the bed.
“What happened?” I asked.
“The Dominion prison has been destroyed,” Jacqueline said. I coughed. I kind of figured that part out. She raised a brow at me. I tried to crane my neck out of the window to see if there were guards outside this room. “They don’t blame you, Lex.”
Colour me shocked. “Everyone knows they tried to kill you,” Sophie said. Her voice was soft. “Both Councils have been arrested.”
My jaw dropped. “All of them?”
Sophie nodded. “The elite guard have launched an investigation into who was involved. Durin is really pissed.”
I paused to let it sink in. “How many fugitives?”
Jacqueline cracked her knuckles. “Enough that we’re in lockdown until order has been restored.”
“Get this,” Sophie said, “Basil’s been asked to take over as the First Order’s presence in the Dominion Prison once it reopens.”
“You’re kidding me?”
She laughed. “I can’t believe it either. But right now, he’s the only one they can trust not to abuse his power.” I had never really noticed it because he was sealed inside a doll, but Basil was packing some serious firepower.
“Good for him.” I could imagine Basil driving a hard bargain for his services. I hoped he’d taken them for all they were worth.
“There is one other thing,” Nanna said. She placed a rolled-up parchment halfway between us. “That’s the Council favour. Only there is no Council at the moment.”
I swallowed. “What about the blood vow?”
This time, all three of them grinned. “Actually,” Jacqueline said, “the contract for the games were never redrawn after you and Kai had that big fight. The nymphs still had possession of it, and since they quarantined the Grove after the attack on the Academies, nobody remembered to update the terms. As soon as Chanelle was ruled out of the games, the contract dissolved.”
The expectation on their faces made it difficult to breathe. My nose clogged. I drew in a breath from my mouth. Sophie reached out for my hand. “Kai was never bonded to Chanelle,” she said. “It turns out she healed by suppressing the rest of her mage-born powers.”
I bit my tongue so hard to keep from bursting into tears. I tasted blood. Since the moment I’d woken up, I’d been able to feel his presence. It was a complete surprise that I didn’t turn around to find him right there with me. I knew without anyone telling me that right now he was with Angus and the other elite guards chasing down the fugitive criminals.
“Lex?” Nanna frowned.
“Lucifer was there while I was technically dead,” I told them. This band-aid needed to come off quickly. “He hurt me with a weapon forged in Hell. He said that he wouldn’t allow any more Nephilim from the Pendragon line to be born.” I looked at my hands. “I’ll never be able to have kids.”
There was a moment of agonised silence. I couldn’t stand it. I actually wished that a portal would open up and spit demons out so I didn’t have to deal with their stunned emotions or the pity. Something even worse than that happened. The bond screamed at me that Kai was close. I swiped the unshed tears from my eyes a second before the tell-tale spark of green.
Nanna almost jumped out of her skin when Kai appeared beside me. “I’m still not quite used to that,” I heard her say just before Kai’s broad chest blocked her, and everything else, out.
“Hey there,” he said. A second later, I was being crushed against a very sweaty, very masculine chest. I heard the click of the door closing. They’d left me alone with him. I felt both grateful and abandoned.
Kai reached under my top to lay his hand against the pulse point on my back. It was the exact spot he had placed his hand that night he initiated the bond. Irritation spiked through me. But it was tempered by the unrepentant itch to crawl all over him. Just for a moment, I allowed myself to indulge in the pleasure of having him so close.
Kai cupped my cheek in one hand. His thumb traced the imaginary line where the axe had almost severed my head. An inch farther and I would have been a goner. They had kept my head attached for a reason though. It was hard to destroy this much power. There had been a necromancer in the room when I died. No doubt they would have raised me to be their puppet. I would have preferred to die.
“I’m never letting you out of my sight again,” he said.
Proof of his words flared in the possessive tug of the bond. I looked up at him. There was a smudge of ash across his left cheek. An artwork of blood dotted along the column of his neck. His T-shirt was torn across his left shoulder. Something with serrated claws had scratched him deep enough to disrupt the elegant lines of his tattoo. I didn’t need to ask him how long it had been since he last slept. The bond told me it was over twenty-four hours ago. He’d come back as soon as he’d felt me regain consciousness.
“What’s wrong?” he asked. Right then I remembered the bond worked both ways. I swear I felt the spike in his heart rate as he clasped my hand. “I shouldn’t have left you.”
I tried to push him aside. “Stop it,” I said. “Please.”
His breath evened out. “Blue?”
I knew I had to tell
