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“Why won’t you let me see her?”
“She was adamant.”
“I don’t care. She almost died, Dane!”
“So did you!” His sharp response startled her and she stilled.
Dane paced to the window, his hands forking through his hair. Strands fell from the leather tie and hung around his face. Exhaustion showed around his eyes.
Seeing how stressed he was, she softly assured him, “I’m okay, Dane.”
He shook his head and rubbed his face. “Can you just…stay in bed until you’re a little stronger?”
Her body clearly needed rest and time to recover, but she couldn’t stay there. “I need to see her, Dane, with my own eyes.” The last time Juniper saw her… “He hurt her.”
“He hurt all of us.”
Dane didn’t know about Adriel’s stupid plan. He didn’t understand how close they came to losing her last night. Cerberus had her pinned down, his claws embedded in her flesh. If Adriel had a way to end her life in that moment, she would have.
Juniper’s head lowered. A mixture of relief and fear churned in her belly. “She almost died,” she whispered, her voice constricted by heavy emotions she didn’t want to name.
“But she didn’t, June. They can’t. Her body’s healed, and she just wants to be left alone now.”
That told her everything she needed to know. Cerberus had done more than claw at her.
“Just give her time. She’ll come around.”
She shook her head. “How could this happen to her? We were unprepared.”
“No good comes out of blame like that.”
She wasn’t fishing for forgiveness. She was taking accountability. This was her fault. She should have been more aware of their surroundings. “I should have protected her better.”
“Hey.” He sat next to her on the bed and rubbed a hand down her back. “She’ll be okay. She’s alive. We all are. That’s all that matters.
His words brought little comfort. Some things are worse than death. Rather than debate him on things he didn’t understand, she nodded and dropped her gaze to the floor. They sat in silence for a heavy moment.
When she glanced at him again, she frowned. “Your arm’s better.”
He quickly covered where a large gash had been, and his expression turned guilty. “Yeah. She insisted.”
Juniper gaped at him. “She was injured, Dane! You had no right to take her blood?—”
“You took it too.”
“What? Why would you let her do that?”
“Let her? She’s a five-hundred-year-old immortal, June. No onelets herdo anything. She does what she chooses.”
“She shouldn’t have done that.”
“Well, you needed something. She made sure you swallowed a few drops while you were sleeping. I tried to talk her out of it, but she wouldn’t take no for an answer.”
Juniper stood and a wave of dizziness had her clutching the bedpost. “I need to talk to her.”
“I don’t think?—”
“I don’t care what anyone thinks right now. This is what I need to do.”
