Total pages in book: 56
Estimated words: 54625 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 273(@200wpm)___ 219(@250wpm)___ 182(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 54625 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 273(@200wpm)___ 219(@250wpm)___ 182(@300wpm)
Then there was the bed itself.
It was massive—bigger, even, than a king—and featured a black velvet headboard and all-black bedding.
Daemon was set on the bed, all of his clothes stripped away, save for a small hand towel someone had draped over his privates.
“When Red was unable to heal,” Jo said, reading my mind, “she had a hidden cross etched into her skin. We wanted to be thorough.”
“Does he have a cross?”
“No,” Jo told me, shaking her head sadly.
My gaze slid to the woman with the long black hair who was standing over Daemon, her fine-boned hand held over his face, her eyes closed.
“Please tell me he’s going to be okay,” I demanded when her eyes opened and landed on me.
“I think he has a… fractured essence.”
“What? What is a fractured essence?”
“It’s sort of like… like a crack in the soul,” Jo translated for me.
Lenore nodded. “It’s preventing him from regenerating.”
“Okay. How do we fix it? Do you have some sort of magical caulking?”
I didn’t mean to be funny. And there was nothing humorous about this situation. But several people gathered let out little awkward chuckles, including Daemon’s brother.
On the bed, Daemon let out a howling sound—something animalistic and pained.
My heart cracked at the sound.
“This is better,” I told them.
“Better than what?” Bael asked, dubious.
“Until we got here, he was just… practically dead. No movement. No sounds. No nothing.”
“He Claimed you,” Lenore said, watching me.
“With his wings?” I asked.
“It’s… more than that. But, yes.”
“What are you thinking?” Jo asked her.
“That maybe… maybe the Claiming—and his connection to Nox—could help. When he thought she was being threatened in some way—“
“No one threatened her,” Bael interrupted.
“You kind of snarled,” I told him. “Out of shock, I’m sure. But you did.”
“You did,” Jo confirmed.
“And since he’s so out of it, he might have thought it was worse than it was,” Lenore said. “Which helped him surface enough to try to protect you. I think your love could help heal him. In time.”
“You do love him, don’t you?” Jo asked, watching me.
“I… yes.” It was not the time for lying. Not with Daemon’s life on the line.
“Well, maybe just… care for him,” Lenore suggested. “See if it helps.”
“What if it doesn’t?”
“I will do some research. There has to be a way to heal a fractured essence. But while I work on it, be here with him. Talk to him, clean his wounds. See if he starts to surface.”
“I can do that,” I confirmed.
I felt wholly inept.
But if all he needed was someone to love him, who else could do that better than me?
Once everyone made their way out, I went into the bathroom, got some water and a washcloth, then went back to wipe the blood away from his handsome, but bruised and swollen, face.
“Your family thinks I can maybe help heal you,” I told him, feeling silly, but willing to trust the process. “I’m not sure they weren’t just blowing smoke,” I went on. “But I’ll play along until they figure something else out.”
As I washed his wounds, I told him all the things he’d missed: saving Aggy, freeing Nemesis, the visit from my mom and sister, going back to Arick, and even my first impressions of his loved ones.
Save for the occasional grunt or hiss when I cleaned a particularly nasty wound, he showed nearly no signs of life.
“I have no idea what I’m doing here, Daemon,” I said, climbing up on the bed, suddenly exhausted. Not my body or my mind—the ambrosia was still doing its job on that front.
I was soul tired.
It had been an exhausting few months. With the last week full of soaring highs and sinking lows.
This, though, was the lowest.
“You have to come back, okay?” I said, sliding closer to him. Reaching down, I drew the blankets over us both. “We have so much we need to talk about still. Like… I still don’t know your favorite ice cream. Or what season you like best. If you see a future with me,” I finished in a small voice as I carefully lowered my head to Daemon’s chest.
“I love you, you know,” I said as I drifted closer to sleep. “I’ll love you even if you stay stuck in there. But I would really, really like it if you came back...”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Daemon
“Coffee Toffee Bar Crunch,” I said, my voice a little rough and raspy from all the screaming I’d done. Screaming so loud that my throat bled, copper blood sliding down my throat, choking me as more howls escaped me.
Nox, having been stuck somewhere in that place between sleeping and awake had slipped back in bed beside me after an early morning shower.
She’d been right there in the bed with me for… shit, I didn’t even know how long. Hours? Days? I had no way to track the lost time.