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I felt weak – so fucking weak – as I tried to shift to make myself more comfortable. Tears sprang to my eyes in time with my rising frustration, and I gritted my teeth before pushing my body higher.
How long had I been asleep?
I recognized that I was in our bed at Roc Palace, and craning my neck, I studied the wall-length fresco depicting an epic love story between an Angel and a Demon. Around the bed, various chairs and chaises had been dragged into the room, some still containing rumpled pillows and blankets. Books lay scattered in haphazard piles, and the fires were only embers in the hearths.Outside, the sun shone brilliantly, and not a hint of snow was visible in the distant capital city.
Zuriel interrupted my examination with his return, carrying a plate filled with steaming pastries along with a ruby red drink. The sweet scent drifted in my direction, vanilla and cinnamon making my mouth water. He placed both on the table beside the bed before crouching down and retrieving a tray. He settled it across my lap, and my stomach released a rather large rumble as he placed the plate in front of me.
“Eat slowly,” he warned. “It’s been a while since you had solid food.”
My brows pinched, and I narrowed my eyes on my cousin before I asked, “How long?”
His face remained neutral, unreadable as ever. “I’ll let Ruslan explain everything when he arrives. Eat, you need your strength.”
Dissatisfied with his caginess, I made a noise of annoyance before turning my attention to the food, lifting the roll with shaking hands and taking a small bite. Zuriel hovered like a worried mother, on the precipice of jumping forward should I need assistance. Chewing slowly, I savored the delicious flavors that warmed my mouth, then bit into it again and again until the first roll was nothing more than icing on my fingers.
By the time I finished the second roll, my head was clearing rapidly, and my hands no longer shook. Sucking my fingers clean, I studied the ruby liquid on the corner of the tray. “What’s this?”
“It’s to help with your strength,” Zuriel said, once again as nonspecific as possible.
Before I had a chance to express my annoyance, a voice popped into my head.
“Sprite?”
My heart leaped as my mate’s voice flitted through my mind, though it was frantic and strained with worry.
“Ruslan, please, I need you.”
“I’ll be right there.”
I didn’t even have time to take a breath before Ruslan and Liliana appeared in the doorway, and moments later my mate crushed me to him, a sob wracking his chest. “Sprite, sprite, sprite,” he repeated through his relief, stroking my hair as he soothed both himself and me. The power of his emotion traveled down our bond, and tears streaked down my face as I shared his feelings. “I thought I’d lost you forever. My soul has been empty since that day. Oh, fuck, I don’t even know what to say other than I am so fucking in love with you, Izidora, and I will never, ever let anything happen to you again.”
Lifting my arms, I wrapped myself around him as much as I could, needing him with the same intensity as he needed me. The moment I woke and feared he had died played over in my mind, and I dug my nails into him as if I could bring him even closer so we were fused from head to toe, never to be separated again. Tears tracked down my face as every ounce of anguish on both ends of our bond flooded it, and it wasn’t until the forcefulness of this eased that I dared to extricate myself from his hold. I needed to breathe and dry my nose and eyes so I could gaze upon Ruslan’s handsome face, the one that would always be my true home.
His smoky eyes swirled with so much devotion, I nearly drowned in it. Beneath them, dark circles told me just how much he had worried, though the rest of him was carefully groomed as he had always been. His dark hair was slicked back, and matching stubbled coated his strong jaw. This close, the faint scar across his temple was visible, as well as the tattoos that climbed up his neck.
I touched his face, brushing my fingers across the soft hairs and then my thumb across his cheekbone. He captured my hand with his, turning into it to kiss my palm. “Sprite,” he croaked, and it was as if the whole world fell away, and all we could see was each other. A hand captured the back of my head, pulling it forward so he could plant a kiss on my forehead. I closed my eyes and savored the feeling of fire racing to where his lips touched me.
Without missing a beat, he chucked off his boots and carefully removed the pillows propping me up before replacing them with his hard body, allowing me to lean against his chest as he enveloped me in his embrace.
Liliana and Zuriel hovered near the bed, the latter holding the untouched red drink, and I shot them both a watery smile before turning serious. “Can someone please tell me what’s going on? How long was I asleep?”
Ruslan rubbed the sides of my arms, soothing my turmoil. The breath he blew out was hot on the top of my head. “It’s been a little over six months since Kazimir tried to kill you.”
Six months.
Another chunk of my lifetimewastedby some male who thought he should have control over my life. My fists clenched around the sheets covering my legs, and another wave of hot tears spilled over my eyes.
“I’ll fucking kill him,” I swore, my body tingling with the depths of my rage.
He deserved it for what he did to me.
Without hesitation, I reached for the drink that Zuriel promised would make me strong, yanking it from his grasp and tipping it back. I gulped it before my mind and body reconnected, but when they did, I tasted the hint of metal cutting through the citrus drink.
Sensing my hesitation, Ruslan murmured, “Finish the whole thing.”
I obeyed, though Liliana and Zuriel shared a knowing look. Once it was completely drained, I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand. “Someone tell me what was in that.” It wasn’t a question, but an order that carried the force of my fury.
“Demon blood,” Ruslan answered immediately, and bile rose in my throat. “We’ve been giving it to you while you slept to maintain your strength. No one knew how long you would be out, and, well, I knew you wouldn’t want to be as weak as you were when you left the cave when you woke up.”
