Page 90 of When Storms Ruin

“I couldn’t stand by and donothingas you bled out on the dining room table in front of us.” I shook my head, willing the tears that stung the back of my eyes to retreat.

“This war cannot be won withoutyou.You are the strongest witch we have and the best chance of defeating Donika. Alastir didn’t envision me ending this war, he saw you. Istmerewould go on without me…but without you? What would happen to the people here?”

“I wasn’t worried about that in the moment,” I replied, my gaze moving to my hands clasped together in my lap.

As a queen…I should have been thinking about that. My first thought should have been for the people of Istmere…but it wasn’t. My first thought had been that I would give upanything, even my own life, for Nik.

He reached across us and grabbed one of my hands, pulling it against him. I could feel his heart beating furiously under my touch. “You were worried about me?”

My gaze met his and his mouth turned into a wicked grin. “Be serious, Nikolai.”

“I am being serious,” he replied, his eyes darkening.

I snatched my hand back and shot him a scolding glare, but his grin only deepened.

“You have no idea how scared I was, that I was going to lose you.” My voice was barely above a whisper.

His eyes were smoldering as they held mine, so much passing between us that neither of us could put into words. I had loved him, then hated him, then loved him again, and the emotions were battling each other inside of me. I would give anything to know what he was thinking in this moment.

The library door burst open, Puck and Tess spilling inside. They were hunched over in a fit of laughter until they saw Nik and I sitting together at the table.

They both sobered quickly.

“Aren’t you supposed to be in Prins, mate?” Puck asked, walking towards us.

Tess gave me an apologetic half-smile. At least she was able to realize when she was interrupting something now.

“Isaac and I traveled back today,” Nik replied, bumping his knee against mine again as he turned towards Puck and Tess.

“And Liss?” Tess asked, grabbing a seat across from me.

“She will be here tomorrow, there was something else she needed to take care of,” he replied.

“How’s the studying going?” Puck asked, his eyes roving over the Kotova grimoire. I could have sworn I saw it shake, threatening to close out of the corner of my eye.

“I’ve found nothing of value,” I admitted. “I need Liss’ help to decode the key spell, and I haven’t found anything in this library about dream walking. If I had the powers Corian had, we would have even more of an advantage against them. There are too many damn books in this library.”

Nik glanced around, realizing for the first time precisely how large this library truly was. “Indeed.”

“I’ve made some progress with the translation for the key, but not much. Latin was never my strong suit, and I don’t think it translates word for word.”

“What have you got so far?” Puck asked, craning his neck to see my handwritten scribbles in the notebook.

“We know it’s a binding spell, and that it requires a bloodline to bind, but I think this also says you must bind yourself to another person. Another Shade. That’s all I’ve got,” I replied.

“That should be easy, there’s no lack of Shades around here,” Puck replied with a laugh.

Tess elbowed him in the side and shot him a glare that said he was certainly not as funny as he thought he was.

“We can help search for the dream walking books,” Tess offered, pushing her chair back and moving towards the ladder.

“But this man needs some rest,” Puck replied, pointing at Nik as he moved around the side of the table. “You are in no condition to pore over these books all night.”

“I’m not sure that requires much physical effort…but the travel did take a lot out of me,” Nik replied, moving to stand.

He cradled his abdomen with his hand as I caught him wince again.

“We’ll fill you in on what we find,” I assured him with a smile. “Go get some rest.”

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