Phoenix Academy - Lucy Auburn Page 0,45
you would make it."
"Don't worry." A familiar voice makes me turn my head in the other direction. Dani is leaning up against a wall, arms crossed, her hair hot pink and shoulder-length. She raises a brow at me and smirks. "A team is headed out to pick up your boyfr—familiars and bring them back here. Congratulations on returning to the land of the living. I see my little present worked. Want to find out what's happened while you've been lazing about in bed, sleeping your ass off? Trust me when I say you're in for a few surprises."
I don't doubt that at all.
Six months.
That's how long I was in Hell.
And how long my sister has been walking around with our father's influence running through her veins, changing her and scarring her. I have to save her—and I have to kill him.
Just as soon as I get my legs to work again.
Chapter 12
When I wake a second time, the guys are by my bedside. Reggie sleeps in a sprawl on an empty gurney; David is curled up in an armchair with his legs thrown over the side; and Xavier is on a folded chair next to my bed, a book open in his lap, head lolling to the side.
My heart squeezes and thumps.
I watch them sleep until I drift off again, my body and soul tired.
It takes two days for me to start to feel normal. For my legs to straighten beneath me and my calf muscles to carry me across the room. For my eyes to stay open longer than a few minutes at a time.
As my body adjusts to having my spirit back in it again, my guys are with me through every moment.
But we don't talk about it.
What happened in Hell. How close we became—and the fact that it took magic-drugged water to do it. Their hands that prop me up at my elbows and waist, polite and distant, also know what it's like to touch my naked body. To be inside me. To kiss until we're gasping for air.
It's the elephant in the room. A big, fat, pink elephant. I feel it every time Xavier's gaze skitters away from me or David looks bitter and distant. Reggie cracks jokes to cover up the awkwardness, which just makes it worse. I try to think of things to say to break the tension in the air, but I'm so tired and lost and confused.
My sister is alive.
Or something that looks and feels like my sister.
Lizzy is alive. The knowledge of it is like a hollow space in my chest where my heart used to be. I want to feel... something, relief or hope, but instead I just feel an ache. I can't stop blaming myself for how she's turned out. If I'd been more determined and gone after her that day in the woods, maybe the Heretic wouldn't have gotten his hands on my sister long enough to change her.
Because she is different. And it hurts more than anything. I need a distraction from the knowledge, and allies in my fight to bring her back and get revenge on our father. But I can't get either from the guys when they'll barely look at me without shuffling their feet or awkwardly making a joke to ease the tension.
The frustrated tension starts to boil over after I make my first full walk through the infirmary. My toes hit the floor awkwardly as I step around a gurney, and Reggie's hand slides towards my waist to catch me before I fall. His fingers brush up against my bare skin, his touch skittering across my midsection.
"Whoops," he mutters, pulling away as soon as I get my feet back under me. "You almost bit it there, Ari. And there wasn't even anything to trip over. If I didn't know better I'd think you were doing it on purpose—swooning into my arms like a heroine from a '60s film."
David frowns. "Reggie."
"What?" He blinks, looks at me, and backs away. "I wasn't... I didn't..."
"Just. Shut. Up."
The wolf shifter is glaring daggers at the panther shifter. Xavier is sitting in an armchair in the corner, asleep after pulling an all night shift watching me, as if he thought my spirit might spontaneously leave my body for no reason. Normally he moves between his brother and his best friend when things get tense between them, but right now all he has to offer is a few deep snores.
So I'm the one who has to step in, even