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“Oh, right.” I tipped the contents of the vial in my mouth.
“Good girl. You get some rest.”
Selene was in my ear the second Healer Helena disappeared into her office. “Do not let her go, girl. She’s already loosened her tongue more than was wise. Keep her talking.”
“I told you not to talk to me. I want to hear from my mom. Now.”
“We can’t yet be sure she erected the barrier,” Selene continued on. “She is a powerful daughter of Hecate, but not the only one here. There are many children of Hecate in this place. Many still among your precious Titans.”
“Let me talk to my mother.” My head sank on the pillow. “You’re not making me do another damn thing until I do.”
Pulling up the covers, a boulder pushed down on my forehead. Or that’s what it felt like. My head wasn’t rising again until sleep released me. Three days of exhaustion bowled me over, weighing my whole body down. Sleep. I just needed sleep.
Vision blurring, my eyes fluttered shut.
“Aella?” Mom’s voice rang loud and clear in my ear. “Is that you, my little warrior? Tell me it’s you.”
My lips parted, and darkness claimed me.
Chapter Fourteen
“Aella.”
“Mom!” I shot up, throwing off the blanket.
Whipping around, I squinted through the gloom—forgetting where I was for the barest millisecond.
No Mom.
No flower shop. No room of chrysanthemums and city noise beating on the windows.
I was lying in a bed in the infirmary after having just woken up from a coma, if the pitch-black sky peeking through the windowpanes was to be believed. I’d been asleep for hours.
“Was that really Mom’s voice I heard?” I whispered, gazing at the bracelet. “Or did I dream it was?”
“Dream, I say.”
I jumped, nearly falling off the bed.
“No one else has been in here but me. Definitely no moms as gorgeous as yours must be.”
Jason rose up on his elbows. I hadn’t realized the lump on the bed next to me was a person.
I hissed. “What happened to you?”
Jason looked terrible. His body was a riot of cuts and bruises like he’d been run over by a cart, and then it backed up and ran over him again.
“I was having a delightful interlude with four or five Proficient ladies. All of them neglected to tell their boyfriends about it.” He shrugged. “They were a bit put out when they walked in on us.”
“So put out they beat you within an inch of your life.”
He grinned—split lip cracking again. “Worth it.”
I tossed my head. “What’s wrong with you, man? The way you go after sex is beyond addiction and straight into obsession.” I flapped a hand at him. “A fatal one.”
“What’s wrong with me? The real question is what’s wrong with you? Why are you lying around here when the man you’re fatally obsessed with is seconds away from marrying another woman?”
I stilled. “What? What are you talking about?”
