went.

"She's still alive!" The new voice sent tremors of relief down my spine.

Killian.

My body hummed as he approached, and soon his face was leaning over mine. Red garnet strands of hair interwoven with dark brown brushed my face. There were still tiny pieces of stone clinging to his body and hair, but he was whole. He was alive.

Cheeks flushed, he smiled down at me.

"You hear me, sweetheart?" he questioned. I didn't know what he expected me to do. Blink twice for yes?

Oh wait. I couldn't fucking blink.

"It's venom from the snake bites," added Lupe, jogging to stand beside us. I couldn't see him, but I could feel his presence seeping into my bones.

"What can we do?" Bash asked desperately. His hand continued to trace my features - across my nose, the seams that connected my lips, my eyebrows. I imagined it would feel very good, comforting and relaxing, if I could actually feel his touch.

"Just wait," Lupe said. "When I was researching Fae and Revenants, I came across a whole list of extinct supernatural creatures. I remember reading about Gorgons. Their venom paralyzes a human, but only for twenty-four hours."

Twenty-four hours! He better have been fucking joking.

"When the she-bitch died, it released us from our stone prisons," he added.

“Back up a second. A Gorgon?” Bash asked in alarm.

“She was sent by Aaliyah apparently.” Dair. “I couldn’t hear the entire conversation, but I got the gist of it. Aaliyah gave the Gorgon life in exchange for Z.”

“Fuck!” That exclamation came from Ryland.

Fuck was a vast understatement.

My vision was jostled as I was carried through a door - a separate entrance than the one that led back into the ballroom. All I was aware of was the ceiling. A rather pretty ceiling, if you asked me. Golden trim, intricately carved designs, and wooden panes.

A door opened and closed, and I was dropped onto something. A bed, more than likely. My bed.

I could hear my men settling around me. A few curled up by my feet, one went above my head, and one went on either side. With the way my head was facing, I could clearly see Bash crawling into bed directly beside me. His face was worshipful as he stared at me, eyes grazing my features with a reverence that made my throat close. He curled up against me, hand wrapping around my waist.

With a quick glance in both directions, as if assuring no one was watching, Bash leaned forward and kissed the tip of my nose. The chaste gesture made my heart stop before restarting with a vengeance.

And so I began the long, excruciating wait.

MY TOES WIGGLED FIRST.

Then my hands.

Pinpricks raced up and down my arms, thousands of needles grazing the skin. The feeling wasn't entirely unpleasant. It reminded me that I could feel. That I was alive.

And then my head could move. My lips opening and closing, my eyes blinking rapidly, my neck craning from side to side.

My mates had fallen asleep around me, and I took the moment to survey them. Bash still slept beside me, but in sleep, he looked like an entirely different man. Peaceful. The stress of his position as a prince and a powerful Mage diminished when he slept. His face appeared as if it was carved from marble, and his lashes feathered against his high cheekbones like twigs of ebony. His breathing was steady, sawing in and out.

Turning, being careful not to remove the arm around my waist, I stared down at my feet. Lupe was clutching one of my feet in his sleep desperately, as if he was afraid that removing his hand would be letting me go.

Silly boy. Didn't he know that I wasn't going anywhere?

That realization took me by surprise. I didn't know how to deal with it, so I did what I did best. Bury it in the sand to uncover at a later time.

Devlin and Killian were on the opposite side of my feet. Devlin was clutching my foot as if it was his favorite stuffed animal, and Killian was curled around Devlin. Aww. Killian was a cuddler. It was too adorable.

I wished I could take a picture or something to remember that moment.

Jax was draped over my head, face inside my hair. I canted my head backwards, smiling softly when Jax muttered something indecipherable, inhaling deeply. I could've been mistaken, but it almost sounded like my name.

Finally, I turned in my bed, meeting Dair's bright blue gaze.

"You're awake," I whispered accusingly. He smiled, blinding me with his white teeth.

"I've been awake for awhile," he replied. He scooted closer to me so we were nose to nose in the large bed. His golden skin was peppered with freckles from all the time he spent out in the sun. Irrationally, I wanted to stay in bed and count each and every one of them. I wondered if he had more on his body, and the thought sent a thrill straight between my thighs.

"Why haven't you moved?" I asked softly. As if it had a mind of its own, my hand lifted and began to lightly trace his features. His skin was smooth, velvety, beneath my hand.

"I like watching you sleep," he replied unashamedly.

"Creeper." My hand caught on a shard of stone, and I tugged it out of his hair distastefully. "How do you feel?"

He chuckled. "Shouldn't I be asking you that? You were the one who was paralyzed."

"Yes, but you were the one who was turned into stone." I laughed, quickly smothering it with the back of my hand before the sound could carry. "Are we going to start comparing tragedies? Declaring winners?"

He laughed as well. "I would rather not."

"Good. Me neither." My breathing hitched as his eyes lowered to my lips. We were so close, so painfully close, that all it would take was one inch of movement and we would be kissing. I wanted to taste him, to decide whether or not his lips tasted as salty as his skin. "And in answer to your

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