Page 45 of Urn My Love

Iolani’s eyelids fluttered, drawing me from my inner musings. Sitting down on the bed beside her, I brushed my knuckles across her cheek.

“Bluebird?” I whispered, desperate for her to wake, but also wanting her to sleep as long as she needed.

“Hm?” she asked, her voice husky. Then her big blue eyes opened. “August?”

“I’m here.”

“How long was I asleep?” she asked, pressing her fingertips to her eyes.

“Almost twenty-four hours.” I stared at the bandages covering her body and rage boiled up inside me.

“And Jazriel?” she whispered, trying to push herself into a sitting position.

“He’s beside you.” I gently pushed her back down on the pillow. “As far as I can tell, he is uninjured, but he’s a ridiculously heavy sleeper. I dropped him once, and he slept through it.”

Her eyes widened. “Because I ordered him to. He’s not going to wake until I undo it.”

I gaped at her. “What if you had died?”

“If I’d died, the command would have been released. I think.”

I was never going to get on her bad side. The last thing I wanted was for her to turn me into Rip Van Wynkle. “So now what? You wake sleeping beauty with true love’s kiss?”

Iolani rolled her eyes, then reached out a hand to stroke his hair. “Time to wake up, Jazriel.”

He was lying on the bed one moment, and the next, he’d pulled the blanket off her and was running his hands over her body. “My love, you must be in so much pain.”

“I’m too relieved to be in pain,” she lied. “I’m here with you two and the veil is stable. Nothing else matters right now.”

Smoke drifted from his hands and swirled up his forearms to his elbows. “Be still and let me care for you.”

Taking his time, he removed the bandages and healed the wounds one by one. When he finished, there wasn’t a speck of blood or a mark on her skin.

“That’s new,” she whispered, her eyes huge as she looked up at him. “Arabelle wasn’t kidding.”

Jazriel tilted his head. “Arabelle?”

“I mean Belle. Remember her from the lounge chairs?”

“But what does she have to do with this?” Jazriel asked.

I listened silently as Iolani babbled on about everything in her vision, feeling my heart sink the longer she talked.

Jazriel clearly understood what she was talking about, which showed me how close they’d become. She’d confided so much in him.

I wanted her to trust me enough to tell me when she needed me, just as she’d let Jazriel follow her into that hellscape of a battle the previous night. There were so many things I wanted to ask her, but I remained silent.

“What do you want to know first?” Iolani asked, locking her eyes on me.

“You can read thoughts?”

She nodded. “It hasn’t worked the same on Earth as it did on Cucalas.”

“I can read thoughts too,” Jazriel volunteered as if this was a sharing circle.

“Yeah, I know,” I growled.

“Really? How’d you figure it out?”

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