Page 61 of Cursed

“Shayla?”I call with my shadowmate connection, but I don’t get a response. Either she’s still unconscious or beyond my range.

The dim lighting from the hallway trickles in through the tiny window in my cell door. It illuminates enough to see the gray-speckled hair and handsome profile of our professor.

“Hollis?” I breathe out just below a whisper.

“Landis?” he asks, recognizing my voice before he turns to look at me.

His distinguished face is bruised, and he winces as he tries to sit up.

I rush over to see how badly he’s injured and to stop him from hurting himself more. But I’m not one hundred percent either. “Whoa, slow down.” I press my hand to his firm chest and make him fall back onto the bed.

“Where’s Shayla?” he demands, as if I have the answers. He looks around, taking in our asylum cell and curses.

“I don’t know where she is. I just woke up myself. The last thing I remember was pulling you toward us so we could get you out of there. And Shayla fell. Then I did too.”

“Did you see what happened to the others?” His voice holds a glimmer of hope—that maybe they can rescue us.

“Rourke went to help Branden, who I assume was being attacked, based on how Shayla reacted. I have no idea if Arden’s here. Fuck, they all might be here.”

“Can you reach out to her with your mind-speak?”

I call for my mate again.

I frown. “Nothing.” Frustrated, I shuffle over to the door to peek out. I can barely stand. Pushing that much power all at once took a lot out of me.

The long hallway is lit, but not by much. I’m not sure if this is their night mode or if it’s always dreary as shit. Probably the latter.

“Empty.” I reach out with my hand to unlock the door with my innate cubi power, but I’m zapped for my effort.

Incubus-proof warding.

Hollis grumbles. His hand hovers over the walls. “From the feel of it, it’s the same spell as the boiler room and the draining facility. We’re trapped.”

“But you disassembled this kind of warding before. Why can’t you do it now?” I move over to sit at the edge of his bed.

He glowers at my ass in his space.

I pick up flares of hostility. But it’s not the first time I’ve felt that directed at me since I mated Shayla. But it might also be his instinctive reaction to someone being so close when he’s wounded.

To make him more comfortable, I move over to perch on the side of my cot.

“I’m depleted of magic,” he answers, gingerly touching his bloodied neck. “Until I heal, get some food, or hell, even fresh air, then I’m not going to have enough magic to break this level of spellwork.”

“I suppose that’s why they didn’t worry about putting us together,” I muse.

“We’ll probably be drained for our magic soon enough anyway.” Hollis covers his face in despair. “If my fated is gone, then I will welcome death.”

Silence fills the space as we both feel that statement in our bones. I study my hands and finally ask what’s been on my mind for a while now, “Why are you angry at me?”

“Can’t you just probe my mind and find out?” he snaps.

“I’ve never disrespected your boundaries like that. I’m not about to start now while you are weakened.”

Hollis sits up suddenly and growls at me.

I hate to admit it, but fuck, my cock stiffens at his show of dominance. Even in his battered state, he’s a force of nature. My mind goes back to how feral he was when he took our willing mate, Shayla.

Would he ever bend me over and ruin me too?

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