“It’s mine.”
“I know that,” the man says, storming up the stairs.
Pax walks into the bedroom – which, due to the three-step bubble, pushes me into the room too, and Killian follows.
“You like blood,” I say, pointing at Killian over Pax’s shoulder.
The guy moves to my side. All I need is Seth and Roarke, and I’d be completely blocked in. Which is exactly the moment I realize I like being blocked in. I almost need to be blocked in.
Which is weird.
Killian grabs my chin. Inspecting me. The touch is too enticing, a small moment that is almost like feeling him.
“I like it when you bleed.” The guy sounds so distracted I’m not even sure he realizes what he’s saying. “But only when I say so.”
I brush his fingers away. “Killian, that’s scary.” Fear. Fear’s a feeling. A Killian kind of feeling.
He grunts. Then smiles. I can feel parts of me adapting to this new world. Killian equals fear equals good. It’s primitive but comforting.
“Good. What happened?” he asks.
“I walked into the bubble.”
“She should stop walking,” Killian says, turning his whole body to face Pax. “I could break her legs?”
“What?” I scream, taking as many steps back from them as I can. “Bralls no.”
Killian chuckles, the sound almost a hum – deep and dark.
“Stop trying to be funny!”
He shows teeth before his brow draws with thought. “I’m always funny. Why does your mouth run off, but never with curses?”
“Like shit and fuck?” I ask as I fold my arms over my chest. I say those words too – but only when the world is ending. Kind of like Roarke. “Clearly my mouth is more talented than yours.”
He’s got a grin on him that looks too much like Seth. Because they all think poking fun at me is amusing.
Which it’s not.
Killian runs a finger over my top lip, and it comes away red with a smudge of my blood. “Have a shower.”
“Sounds like Jada is saddling her horse, good,” Pax says.
Which takes me by surprise – is he keen for her to leave too?
I grip the front of his shirt, which barely manages to slow him down. “Why is that good?”
“Because I have an important task for her – and I’m pretty sure I was going to get in that shower with you. Thane has been thinking about it all morning.”
A rush of sharp static zaps through me so quickly that I’m left unable to speak. The charge clamps the muscles in my jaw. This Power Blocking Potion has side effects – sure, my immunity to him seems to have vanished, but more importantly, I just enjoyed that sensation. Pax equals lightning equals good.
Pax doesn’t seem to notice, saying, “Told you it wasn’t happening,” to Thane as he leaves.
“Wash,” Killian says, breaking me out of my trance and pointing towards the shower.
I hold my hands out, walking carefully until I push against the wall – nowhere near the shower.
“You have to walk with me,” I tell Killian, not looking back.
“No.”
“What do you mean, no?”
“Push through it,” he orders, crossing his arms over his broad chest and looking very serious.
I frown at him. Why?
I mean, why not?
“Because I did it before, at the Lackshir markets?”
“Try,” he grunts, then sucks in his breath, some of the stern determination smoothing from his face, and adds, “Please.”
“But whatever happened at the market had me locked instantly inside Pax’s bubble.”
He nods, folding his arms over his chest and making his biceps pop. His chin is all stubbly, and his hair has almost doubled in length, rough and wild about his ears, which only enhances his ‘I’m serious’ face.
And it is worth a try.
Anything is worth a try.
Well, almost. Power Blocking Potions aren’t.
“What about this potion on me? Wouldn’t that make it impossible?”
“You didn’t use our powers to get through.” As he speaks his chest tenses, and I realize his arms crossed might make him look angry and intimidating, but I’m pretty sure he’s holding himself together right now.
A slow smile laces across his lips.
“It doesn’t matter what I think – or feel – about your death. Only that it doesn’t happen inside this bubble.”
“Aw, Killian, and here I thought you’d grown a heart,” I tease, turning my back to him and glaring at my invisible wall.
I press both palms against it and start to push, tensing through the ache in my hands as my wrists protest the hard surface and the pressure. I grit my teeth against the growing zap of electricity running through my flesh and bones, leaning into it with every bit of strength I have. Pushing my chest against it because pain and pressure aren’t going to stop me from trying. My fingers numb, and my ears begin to ring.
But I push harder.
The world turns black...
Harder.
Because if this works, I’m going to be free.
Freedom.
Harder – through the dizzy nothingness.
Harder.
Gravity tilts then the wall vanishes, and I fall forwards uncontrollably. There’s no saving myself since I can’t even see the damn floor through my completely blackened lack of vision. Arms wrap around me and slide across the timber with me. Someone falling in my path, cushioning me.
I have to blink through the darkness before I can see the rough shape of his body and be sure. It should smell like Killian, but it just feels like a big, muscular person. Without his power, his scent is a mix of sweat and steel. Possibly exactly how every other Saber smells.
There’s a buckle under my chin. A soft cotton shirt against my cheek and a hand stroking the hair off my face.
“Good effort,” Killian’s gravelly voice cuts through the ringing.
I swallow a few times, my heart rate steadying as air begins to feel like it’s actually doing its job in my lungs.
“Did I do it?” I ask sarcastically.
His chest rumbles underneath me. Laughter. I like Killian’s laugh, and I nestle myself permanently against him. My body runs alongside his, one leg over him, arm against his chest, and oh so very comfortable.
I’m not sure when I
