The Summer King Bundle 3 Stories - Jennifer L. Armentrout Page 0,126

and sank deep into the muscles. I gasped. “It hurts.”

He made a sound in the back of his throat. “I know. I’m sorry, baby. I am, but you have to keep the blanket on. You’re still not warm enough.”

I didn’t care. Fire ants were chewing their way through my flesh. I twisted, moaning as my ribs protested. The numbness had vanished, and I yearned for the return. “Why…why does it hurt now? It…stopped hurting. It had finally stopped.”

“I’m sorry,” he whispered. “Your body is warming up, and blood is moving like it should. It’s going to hurt, and then it’ll be better.”

It wasn’t going to be better. There was no way it could be when every long-forgotten cut began to sting, and every bruise started to throb incessantly. I couldn’t hold still, even as the King tried to keep me immobile. I became a twisting mess of aching, moaning flesh. Everything hurt, inside and out. Each breath was like breathing fire. Tears crowded my eyes.

“Not much longer,” Caden murmured over the top of my head. He said that more than once. Repeating it over and over. And then it became too much.

“Can’t you do something?” Ivy demanded, her voice pitched with worry. “Glamour her?”

“I can’t do that to her. Not now. Not after—”

“Please,” I begged, each breath coming in short, painful pants. “Please do something.”

“I know he’s done it to you multiple times. I can tell. I hate this. It’s killing me.”

“It sounds like it’s actually killing her,” Ren snapped. “So, why don’t you get over yourself and help her out?”

“You don’t understand,” Caden growled. “She’s on the brink of not coming back. I can see it in her eyes. She didn’t recognize either of you. She didn’t know me at first. Why do you think that’s the case?”

“Please,” I whispered. “Make it stop. Please.”

“I can’t.” His voice gentled as his hand curled around the back of my head. “One more feeding. One more glamouring, and that could be it. I will not do that to you.”

“I’ll drive faster,” Ren muttered.

“Please.” My voice cracked. “Stop it.”

“I’m sorry,” Caden said as I shuddered. “I’m sorry this happened to you. I’m sorry.”

My skin felt like it blistered and then burst. My muscles felt stretched until they snapped. Every bone felt brittle and sharp-edged. There was no escaping this—

Sudden clarity flowed through me, pushing away the fog, and I remembered all that had been done. All of it. And I couldn’t deal with it.

I kicked my head back as a hoarse scream tore from my throat. Voices poured from the front of the car. Agony contorted my body, further inflaming the bruises and raw skin. My voice gave out, and finally, it was too much. I slipped into blissful nothingness, and the last thing I heard was Caden shouting my name.

* * * *

A stranger stared down at me, a female wearing a pale blue shirt. Others were moving around, tugging at the straps of the dress I wore as the fae’s mouth moved, but I couldn’t hear her over the rushing sound in my ears.

“Stop,” I rasped, swatting at the hands. “Stop.”

“I’m a healer. I work for the King.” She caught my hand, carefully lowering it to the table. “We need to get this dress off and assess your injuries.”

Her words made sense but also didn’t. The material slipped down my shoulders—

The female jerked back, her eyes going wide. There were several gasps, and then the healer snapped into action, firing off orders at a rapid pace. “Get the IV in and use the morphine. Start her with four milligrams and then get some fluids in her. Get Ringer solution on board. Check to see what kind of antibiotics we have, and get one of the mortals ready to make a possible run.”

It happened so fast. The dress was removed, replaced by a warm, soft blanket. I felt the needle go into the vein in the top of my hand, but it was nothing compared to everything else.

“You’re going to feel a rush of warmth in a few moments. Maybe taste something weird in the back of your throat, but don’t worry. It’s just some medicine to take the pain away,” the woman said. “We’re going to look at these injuries, okay?”

I didn’t know who she was—who these people were. What had happened to Caden? Heart thumping, I started to sit up, and then a buzzing wave swept through me, somehow beating back the fire, cooling it down by degrees with each

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