Page 117 of Witch Undecided
I took another step back, not sure where the fuck I’d run to, but the thing moved in a blur and stopped inches from me, its featureless face peering down at me, eerie as fuck.
You belong to us now.
Gray tentacles shot out of its cheeks and latched onto me so fast there was no time to evade, and then I was falling.
TOR
“She’s burning up.” I smooth sweat-soaked tendrils off her forehead.
We’ve laid her on her bed, and while I sit, my hip at her thigh, Leif kneels on the floor by Cora’s side, her hand clasped in his.
Conah is gone, back to the mansion to search for information on the infection. There are boxes of old texts, unshelved and unlogged. He won’t find answers, but I understand he needs to be doing something, and there’s no role for him here.
Jasper stands in the corner of the room like a watchful shadow. His expression is closed, unreadable. Rune stands by the window with Sloane, his golden body tense and alert. Out of all of us, he feels this the most. This thing is inside him too. Has been for a decade, dormant and waiting. To see it active in someone he cares for, to see her fighting, to feel it through the bond we share is a different kind of torture.
The infection is a dark throb tugging at the threads that bind us to Cora. Testing the links, wanting to sever them.
We can’t let it.
Leif makes a sound of assent as if I’ve spoken and he’s heard me.
Cora moans softly, mouth parting, brow furrowing.
“Strip her,” Pippa orders as she enters the room carrying a bowl. “Open the window a little.”
Sloane tries. “It’s stuck.”
Fuck. “I nailed it shut.”
She waves her hand over the wood, muttering under her breath, then the window is sliding open and cool air fills the room.
I glance at Leif and he nods. We begin to take off Cora’s clothes. I didn’t expect the first time I undressed my mate to be like this. I didn’t expect my stomach to be tied in knots of fear.
I’m not afraid of death. Never have been. But right now, with Cora balancing on the precipice between life and death, fear is a relentless band around my throat.
Creamy smooth skin is exposed as I peel her T-shirt from her chest. I look away, not wanting to stare at her nakedness. Not like this.
Leif does the same, his gaze averted as he unbuckles her trousers and tugs them down.
“For fucksake,” Jasper says. “Get out of the way and let me. I’ve seen it all before.”
I want to throttle him, but he has a point, so I back up and let him finish up.
He makes quick work of stripping my mate, which calls forth all kinds of thoughts, thoughts that make me want to smash his face in. But then he covers her so tenderly with a sheet that my ire melts.
Pippa takes over and begins wiping Cora down with a washcloth dipped in tepid water.
“We need to keep her fever down. Help control it,” she explains.
Jasper returns to his spot in the corner of the room. He’s fading and it hits me that he’s no longer feeding off Cora. He’s letting her go so she can fight this infection.
I hate that I’m beginning to like the fucker.
Fight, Cora.Fight it,Rune says softly,for us all.
CORA
Ours.
