Page 53 of Ecliptic

Of course it was him. Who else would have been able to touch me?

“Wha . . . what are you two doing out here? Together?” I slurred. Either the sedative running through my veins made me see things, or Rowen and Maddock had been out here alone.

“That’s not important right now,” Rowen said in a panic. “What happened to you?”

“My mom tried to sedate me, and she . . . plunged half the syringe. I stopped her before . . . before . . .” My eyes succumbed to the powerful drug, and I relaxed into Maddock’s arms.

“Keira,” Rowen yelled.

“She’ll be all right. Sedatives won’t kill her. It will just make her tired. She will wake soon,” Maddock said, and I felt Rowen’s nerves calm.

“Remember, her fate is your fate,” Rowen ground out, his voice like gravel.

“That makes no sense! I didn’t even do this.”

Rowen growled.

“No, you’re right. It makes perfect sense,” Maddock said, his arms tensing beneath me. “I’m ninety-eight percent sure she’ll wake up.”

“Just carry her to Takoda’s,” Rowen demanded, not above asking Maddock to provide the assistance he couldn’t. “This way.”

“Sedatives are a funny thing,” Madds replied as he carried me back to the village. “She might not remember she found us together, and we won’t have to tell her. Who knows if she heard anything.”

“We are telling her,” Rowen said sternly. “I won’t keep anything from her.”

“Tell me what,” I asked, fighting to open my eyelids.

“Nothing you need to know right now, my flame. Just go to sleep.”

I closed my eyes again as my cheek fell to Maddock’s chest, and a deep chuckle rumbled through him. “I’ve had to subdue her, revive her, and now carry her for you,” he mused. “Do you need me to fuck her for you too?”

With a predatory snarl, my soul flame charged Maddock. “I may not be able to touch her, but I can damn well break your bones.”

“Yeah,” I said sleepily, bolstered in Maddock’s strong arms, and I found it immensely irritating that I was comfortable. “Punch him in the face, Rowen.”

“Hey! I’m literally carrying your ass,” Maddock shouted in my ear.

I shrugged sleepily, not opening my eyes.

“You’re lucky you’re holding my entire world. It’s the only thing preventing me from tearing you limb from limb,” my favorite voice said.

“Fine. I’ll lay off. Just making some simple observations.”

“Make any more simple observations, and I’ll bash your teeth in. Besides, you are more than welcome to ask her for a fuck, though I doubt she would be interested. As I recall, she’s seen the disappointed look on your partners’ faces.”

I’d glimpsed into Maddock’s life, experienced his memories as if they were my own. And I couldn’t shake the image of the beautiful blonde woman who’d thrown a vase at my—his—head upon learning of his many infidelities.

“Good one!” I chirped from my creeping slumber.

I couldn’t fathom the pain of depending on someone else to help the one you love. If our situations were reversed, I mighthave punched someone’s teeth in ages ago. But Rowen’s control was astounding, whereas mine was slipping away by the second.

I might find comfort in Maddock’s arms now, but I still didn’t trust him. I knew I should hate him, but I couldn’t remember why. I had a million questions on the tip of my tongue when all turned to black, and I succumbed to my mother’s sedative.

My heavy eyelids slowly blinked open. I was in Takoda’s dome of healing, his living medicines hanging from the walls and dangling from the ceiling.

“Keira,” Rowen breathed as Maddock let out a relieved exhale.

The sedative sludged through my system, and I was still groggy, but I remembered everything. “What did you want to tell me?” I asked, sitting up too quickly and almost vomiting.

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