smacked into Grace. She hopped backwards, anyway, and when she realized she was safe, she glared at Axton with narrowed eyes.
Color high in her cheeks, she huffed and stomped past him. “If you wanted your room back, you only needed to ask. There’s no need to hit me with a door, Axton.”
She continued to mutter on her way to the couch, and Axton stared after her, his own cheeks a deep grey.
“Sorry. But sit, sit. We have some news,” Axton rushed out as he carefully clicked the door shut. When he turned, he yelled for Trace.
“I’m coming. Just a minute,” Trace’s muffled voice came from Kian’s room.
I heard him grunt right before I spun around in a circle, surveying the area for Shadow. After checking her favorite fake tree, I ran towards a startled Axton, passing him at the last moment to go through the kitchen.
“What are you looking for?” Axton asked.
“Shadow is gone. She disappeared during the meeting, and we can’t find her anywhere,” I replied from the inside of a cabinet.
“Did you search the palace?” he inquired.
I jerked my head out of the cabinet and leveled a hard glare at him. “Of course, we did.”
He held his hands up in surrender, turning away. “I’ll go check your bedroom. There’s something I need to grab, anyway.”
“Shadow!” I yelled. “Come out if you’re here. This isn’t funny.”
She had developed an odd sense of humor, but I didn’t honestly believe that she would run all the way home just to mess with me. Oh, she might hide under a bed or hang from a vent, but this went too far.
“I’ll check the other bedrooms,” Grace called out, and moments later, I heard her door open.
Deciding she wasn’t in the small kitchen, I joined Grace and peeked into Trace’s room—no Shadow.
“She’s not in here,” Trace yelled at the same time Axton said he didn’t see her, either.
Grace and I looked at each other, shaking our heads. She trudged to the couch while I glanced into the bathroom.
Giving up, I dropped into the seat beside Grace. She’d shrunk down again, and frustration coursed through me. I knew that I should be understanding, and I had been, but that didn’t mean that her reactions to things didn’t make me want to infuse her with courage and self-confidence. In particular, the shrinking response set off something in me because I couldn’t do anything about it.
“Axton’s not going to be mad at you,” I whispered to Grace without looking at her.
“I know,” she whispered back but didn’t move.
“Why are you still so heavy? You didn’t eat for an entire set, and I swear you weigh more now than you did before,” Trace groused.
My eyes shot towards Kian’s doorway, and I found Trace with Kian laid over his outstretched arms.
“Just watch my head. I’m sure you whacked it against the doorframe on purpose the last time I had to use the bathroom,” Kian said, his voice weaker than I liked.
But weak or not, that lyrical cadence made my heart swell. He’d been so silent for too long, and while he’d lain there unconscious, I’d worried that I would never hear it again. I jumped up from my seat and ran towards them, nearly colliding with Axton as he exited my room and walked to the couch with his head down. At the last second, I twisted and pivoted, edging around him on my way to Kian.
“Do not hit his head, Trace,” I growled.
Trace’s eyes found me, and the asshole grinned. “Now, why would I do that?”
“You wouldn’t if you enjoy being able to sleep without worrying what will happen to you,” I threatened.
But that only made Trace’s smile widen. Strange male.
Trace maneuvered them both out through the doorway without incident, so I stopped thinking about punishing him and escorted them to the couch. Though, my version of escort involved a lot of hand wringing and bouncing on my toes. I’m sure it looked ridiculous, especially if Axton’s puzzled look was any indication, but at that moment, I needed Kian to be okay.
With Shadow missing and Kian hurt, something as simple as seeing Kian sitting on the couch like normal carried so much importance. My swirling stomach and vibrating veins only settled once Trace lowered Kian to the cushion, and I could sit beside Kian, gripping his arm as if he’d disappear, too. Before Axton spilled his news, I took the opportunity to study Kian. Trace was right. He didn’t seem to be any thinner, but his skin