Page 3 of Shaped By Darkness

Thankfully, the castle isn't as much of a maze as it was when we arrived. I've had time to explore, and even if I don't know every nook and cranny the way Lyle and Blair do, the medical wing is somewhere I'm familiar with, though I wish it weren't.

I feel more than see Garrett and Blair as they follow behind me, lagging slightly now that they've shifted back. There's no way Garrett would have fit in here as his wyvern. That thing is easily the size of this whole wing. Blair, on the other hand, could’ve fit, but a quick glance over my shoulder shows he's now carrying Rena.

They must have traded off so that Garrett could shift back.

The second we reach the first room, Storm is moving, damn near jumping from my back and busting down the door to get his brother on the bed.

I slide to a stop and shift back, standing outside of the room in a state of shock as my eyes follow the trail of blood that leads from me to the bed that Sol now occupies. I hadn't realizedwhen I was covered in fur, but now it's hard to miss the sticky, warm feeling that coats my back.

I'm covered in Sol's blood.

Something about the thought freaks me out. Sol might not be my twin, but he's my pack, one of my best friends, and he might very well be dying.

Fuck!

I peel my pants off, uncaring if I'm once again naked, even as Blair and Garrett come running down the hall. I'd rather stand naked in front of the entire kingdom than be covered in his blood; there's just something so morbid about it.

"Turn around." Garrett's voice startles me as I spiral, but I only hesitate for a moment before I do as he says. The second I turn, I'm hit with a wave of warm water, and I let out a sigh of relief as the feeling of it replaces the wet, sticky feel of Sol's blood.

"Here." He tosses me a new pair of pants, and I'm not sure where he got them from, but I don't care. Blair moves past Garrett into the room, with Sol and Storm leaving me and Garrett in the hall. My panic once again grips me while I wrestle to pull my pants up while still dripping wet.

"Fuck," I stumble but manage to catch myself before Garrett takes pity on me and hits me with a jet of warm air that has me dry in less than five seconds. I manage to get my pants up before I realize how fucking stupid that was. Air is my main element; I could have easily handled that myself.

"Get ahold of yourself," Garrett stalks toward me, and my first instinct is to tell him to fuck off. He doesn't know me. He isn't one of us.

But that's not true, at least not anymore.

We might not all see eye to eye, but Garrett isn't going away. He's Serena's mate as much as Storm and Blair are. Hell, he's been her mate for years, well before she even knew who wewere. No, Garrett is one of us. He's proved it more than once now, and I won't continue to make this a competition, not when we have other things to worry about.

"Serena’s going to be a mess. She will need us to have it together while we figure everything out." He reaches out and grips my shoulder, forcing me to meet his gaze, and I see how serious he is.

Serena needs us, needs me.

I nod as his words sink in, and I get it. Serena is what's most important to all of us, and I know just the way to help her.

Once again clean, I let my shift take me over just as the Queen comes rushing down the hall with two other women behind her, their arms overflowing with bottles, flowers, and other things I don't get a chance to see before they disappear into the room. Garrett pats my head, and I bite back a growl from my beast. He hates being treated like a dog, but I don't think that was Garrett's intention, and if we bite his hand off right now, it's only going to make things worse.

Instead of going in, I choose to stay in the hall. First, I pace back and forth before eventually lying down outside the door. I can hear every word and movement inside as the Queen does everything she can to slow the bleeding and promote healing. Before long, the two women who'd helped the Queen bring everything, leave. The first damn near jumps out of her skin when they come out the door and find me, while the second looks like she wants to pet me. Thankfully, she doesn't. Instead, she only smiles at me as she walks by, and I thank my lucky stars that she had some sense.

Eventually, Blair exits the room with Serena still in his arms. I'm not surprised he hasn't put her down, and it's not just because he doesn't have anywhere to put her with Sol all but bleeding out in the bed.

No, Blair is a possessive bastard, even if he’s really good at hiding it. He'd spent the last ten-ish years chasing away every guy who came within a five-foot radius of Serena. I appreciated it because fuck them, but also it kind of sucked because she always thought there was something wrong with her.

I make a mental note to tell her the truth later, when things are less tense.

He exits the room and sinks down to the floor on the opposite side of the door as me, looking exhausted.

"She slowed the bleeding enough that he won't bleed out, but she can't heal it. Now we wait and hope his body can handle it." I let out a whine, low and sad, and it perfectly sums up how I'm feeling, how this whole situation is going right now, if you ask me.

We'd run off to save the village, and while we'd succeeded in doing that, what was the cost?

I'd seen the way Serena handled herself at the end there, her shadows bending to her will to the point that it was almost as if Draven was running from her.

Had we made the wrong choice in leaving her behind?

If we'd brought her along, could we have avoided all this? Or would things have been worse?

There's no way to really know, and what-ifs like that can make you crazy. Instead of worrying about it and what could have happened, I choose to worry about the here and now instead.

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