Watching Flint trying to be brave in the face of everything he’s lost, an all-too-familiar panic twists my stomach, and I drag a slow, deep breath into my lungs. Exhale. Then breathe in again.
Marise unlocks the glass cabinet and shuffles several pill bottles around until she finds what she’s looking for. “Here, it’s time for more pain medication,” she tells him, walking back and handing him two blue pills.
After Marise cleans the wound and starts the tedious process of re-bandaging it, Macy and Eden ask her questions about the attack.
“I’m sorry, girls,” Marise says after offering no new information to yet another volley of questions. “I wish I had more answers for you.”
Macy and Eden exchange a look before Macy replies, “No, no. It’s fine. You were fighting for your life—we understand. Not the best time to ask questions. We just wish you knew something that would help us figure out our next move.”
“Well, I think you kids should just stay at Katmere where you’re safe,” Marise answers as she scoops up the used bandages. “No sense getting caught and giving Cyrus an opportunity to steal your power, too.”
“Wait, Cyrus kidnapped the kids to have leverage against their parents, force them to do his bidding,” Eden says, her eyebrows shooting up. “Didn’t he?”
I lean forward. Have we all gotten it wrong?
Marise shrugs and looks back down at Flint’s leg. “I don’t know anything about that, but I overheard one wolf talking about needing young magic to power something.”
I gasp and shake my head at no one in particular. No, no, no. That can’t be right.
“He kidnapped them to steal their magic?” Macy’s voice breaks on the last word, her eyes widening in terror. “But our magic is tied to our soul. If Cyrus is trying to siphon it, he’ll end up killing them!”
I glance over at Hudson to see if he’s hearing this as well and am not surprised to notice him staring intently at the older vampire, his eyes narrowed in thought.
“I’m sorry,” Marise says as she turns to drop Flint’s bandages in a nearby medical waste bin. “That’s all I know.”
Macy asks something else, but I can’t hear anything over the roaring in my ears. When we got to school and realized Cyrus had kidnapped the entire student body, it horrified all of us. But still, in the back of my mind, I think we all figured he wouldn’t actually kill them. I mean, it’s hard to use them for leverage against their parents if they’re dead, right?
But now, realizing he might only want them for their magic, that he has no need to keep them alive after he’s taken what he wants from them, I can’t believe I took the time for a shower. Or—oh my God—actually made out with Hudson while students might be dying.
I glance up at my mate, then wish I hadn’t because I know my thoughts are written across my face. The remorse. The shame. The horror.
His jaw tenses before he catches himself, but then his face goes completely blank as he registers how upset I am. Regret settles in my stomach, making it twist and churn. Because no matter how devastated this realization makes me, it’s nothing compared to what Hudson is certainly feeling. Not after everything Flint accused him of earlier.
Oh, he tried to pretend like it was no big deal, tried to pretend that Flint’s words rolled right off his back. Which might not have bothered me so much if he was just fronting to the others. But he’s doing it with me as well, and that, more than anything else, tells me just how devastated he is.
Hudson and I don’t pretend with each other—we never have. Not when I first unfroze us, when he was locked in my head and it was impossible for us to hide stuff from each other. And not now that he’s out, either, because that’s not who we are together. We tell each other the truth, even when it’s hard. So if he’s so far gone that he’s hiding from me, things are bad. Really, really bad.
Fear turns my blood to ice, and I begin to make my way across the room to him. He needs to know this isn’t his fault, needs to understand that none of this can be laid at his door. But before I can, Marise starts giving Flint a litany of instructions about his leg.
As she does, we all crowd around the bed, wanting to know what—if anything—we can do to help. Even Hudson puts his phone down, though he doesn’t make a move to get closer to the bed or Flint.
Eventually, though, there are no more questions to ask. There’s only the knowledge that regardless of how much we wish this isn’t happening, there’s nothing we can do but support Flint.
Because the truth is, no matter how much power you have, sometimes broken things have to stay broken, even though we might wish otherwise.
“I’m so sorry this happened to you,” Macy tells him as she rubs a soothing hand down his arm. “But we’ll do everything we can for you. We can take you to the Witch Court; the healers can make you a prosthetic—”
“Are these the same witches who just tried to kill us?” he answers caustically.
“I’m sorry,” she whispers, tears blooming in her eyes. “I didn’t mean—”
Flint mutters under his breath, shakes his head. “Ignore me. I’m in a foul mood.”
“Yeah, well, if anyone has the right to be…” Macy blinks back her tears. “It’s definitely you.”
I feel a little voyeuristic to just be standing here watching Flint suffer, so I turn my back as Marise tells him, “And on the plus side, you’re healing well, even faster than shifters normally do. Your wound is already nearly sealed, and I expect the skin to finish healing completely in the next twenty-four hours. In the meantime, you’ll need an antibiotic and some extra bandages.”
Eden moves closer and bumps his shoulder with her own. “You’re going to be okay,” she says fiercely. “We’ll make sure of it.”
“Yeah, we will,” Macy agrees.
“I can’t believe this is happening,” I whisper to no one in particular, and then Hudson is beside me, his hands turning my shoulders so I face him.
“Flint is going to be okay,” he says. “Everything is going to be okay.”
I raise a brow at him. “It would be really nice if I actually thought you believed that.”
Before he can think of something else to say, Jaxon comes back in the room, stopping on the other side of Flint’s bed.
“Luca’s parents are leaving now.” His face is grim, his eyes infinite pools of grief. “They’ll be here by morning.”
4
Too Close
for Closure