A Hippogriff for Christmas - Zoe Chant Page 0,67

Beau.

His face was as pale as ashes as Annie gently slipped her thumb between his lips, opening his mouth.

Please, Beau. Please. I love you. I need you. Please, wake up.

Carefully, she placed the vial in the corner of his mouth, upending it and pouring the dark liquid inside down his throat. Unable to stop herself, she leaned over him once it was gone, placing a gentle kiss on his cold lips.

She’d wanted to do that long before she actually had. She had kept telling herself that she wouldn’t give in to her feelings for Beau – that would only lead to her getting hurt.

And now, she could barely stand the thought of living the rest of her life without him.

You’re my mate, Beau. I accepted our bond. You can’t leave me now.

Once again, she felt the golden glow of their connection wreathing her heart. Once again, she felt it calling out to the golden light within Beau – and this time, she felt it answered.

Beau!

Annie bit her lip, clenching her fists. This had happened before, she told herself – and that time, their connection had sputtered out.

She was determined not to let that happen again.

With all of her strength, she called out to him, reaching for his side of the mated bond.

A golden ribbon of light appeared before her – weak, barely visible, but there. She imagined herself catching it with her hands, twining it with her fingers, and pulling it forward toward herself, pressing it to her chest.

Please, Beau. I love you. Come back.

“Annie…”

For a moment, Annie didn’t dare to believe she’d really heard Beau saying her name. His voice was hoarse and cracked, but it was his.

Annie’s eyes flew open, her heart in her throat.

Beau was looking up at her, his dark brown eyes soft.

Her breath hitched.

Is this really happening?

In the next moment, Beau had reached up, twining his fingers through her hair.

“I heard you calling to me,” he said, voice still rasping in his throat, but sounding stronger now. “I don’t know where I went, but I heard your voice…”

Annie blinked away her tears, running a hand over Beau’s cheek. “You got shot,” she said, the words almost choking her. “You used your powers to save me. But you – you sacrificed yourself –”

Beau frowned, blinking, before his expression cleared. He swallowed.

“I remember now,” he said. “I’m sorry, Annie. If there’d been another way, I wouldn’t have –”

Annie shook her head, leaning down to silence him with a kiss.

No apologies. I know why you did it.

Somehow, Annie knew Beau could sense her thoughts as he returned the kiss. At least, until Landon cleared his throat quietly, and she pulled back, blushing.

But she didn’t really think Landon could blame her – and wasn’t he the one who’d told her to use the power of the mated bond to begin with?!

“Landon,” Beau said, struggling to sit up. “What’re you doing –”

Beau broke off as he took in the scene around him. Annie had been barely paying attention to any of it all this time – she’d been far too focused on Beau to care – but now, she had to admit, this was like something out of a dream.

A very, very strange dream.

“We heard the gunshot and figured something must’ve gone wrong,” Landon said, as Annie stared at a condor that was swooping at and keeping a collection of other birds – a pair of eagles, the peacock from earlier, a couple of swallows and what looked like a toucan – in one corner of the room.

Over by the stairs, a boar was growling at a lion, while a woman wearing an evening gown yelled at it to Calm down, Sidney, there’s no point in getting angry about it now.

There were a group of people – the ones who’d apparently not been able to escape and had resigned themselves to being caught – standing in handcuffs and surrounded by the black-clothed agents from earlier. One of the guests was shouting You’ll be hearing from my lawyers!! so perhaps they weren’t as resigned to having been caught red-handed in an illegal gambling den as it seemed.

But where –

“Rosalind,” Beau said, obviously having had the same thought as Annie. “Where did she go? Landon, she turns into a –”

“A phoenix,” Landon said, nodding. “We know.”

A phoenix?

Annie blinked. She should have realized it sooner – of course she was a phoenix, with her flaming wings and tail.

Oh, of course, she thought, rolling her eyes. Like that’s a normal thought to have!

But it