Page 6 of Oracle
I almost burst into tears on the spot as Lux's sarcastic yet warm voice filled my mind. She wasn’t gone. She was here with me.
Lux! I thought I had lost you forever when I couldn't reach you. I have so fucking much to tell you. I don’t know if I can handle all of this anymore.
I felt her fear for me bleed through our mind.Whatever it is, we'll face it together. All of us.
The guys' expressions turned concerned as a stray tear leaked from one eye, and I bit my lip, thinking of everything I was holding inside.
I can't tell them. I can't tell anyone besides you.
"Kitten?" Seth inquired softly, his brows pinched together as he gave voice to the worry apparent on all my men’s faces, "Are you okay?"
Take a moment with them. We will talk in a bit.
Okay. I'm relieved to hear your voice, Lux. I wouldn't be able to do this without you. You're my rock.
I'll always be here for you.
"Yup," I answered Seth, inhaling deeply and shaking my head in disbelief at my situation as I gestured around with my hands. "This is all just really crazy. I was stabbed and a magical tree saved me?"
I was covering for the real reason I had teared up, but my words weren't false. All of this was legitimately batshit crazy, but it was my reality and I needed to get a grip. I would not waste these precious last two weeks with them.
Goddess, I couldn’t believe it’d been shortened to two weeks. I needed to come to terms with that, and quickly.
Milo reached out to rub my back in soothing circles and said, "We thought we were going to lose you, baby." His voice sounded so small and broken, like he was still processing what had happened to me.
I peered over at him to my right, glossing over his statement because they reallyweregoing to lose me soon. A ball of emotion clogged my throat, and I swallowed the lump quickly, pushing past it, and asked, "Walk me through what happened after I was..." I hesitated, "stabbed." A wince accompanied the word, and I couldn't hide it. It was weird to talk about it in such a clinical manner.
Tian's velvety smooth and calming voice washed over me from behind, and I couldn't help but lean back into his embrace, soaking in his energy. "After Christofer stabbed you, it was like the dark power that was attached to the dagger completely immobilized you within seconds. You were out before we had a real chance to react."
A part of me hazily remembered the fear and rage combined in Wes and Tian's gazes before I had blacked out. "And then what?" I prompted, needing to connect the pieces that followed.
A dark, rumbling chuckle came from Caleb, "And then I had to rip Jameson off the kid before he had a chance to murder him."
My brows rose nearly to the top of my forehead as I reeled in shock.
"He stabbed her. He deserved it," Jameson retorted, ice filling his tone, and I winced at the darkness in it. We weren't exactly on the best of terms, but we had agreed to try to start over at being friends of sorts. If that was even possible.
Tian sighed, his chest heaving and falling against my back. "We thought of bringing you back to the pools to see if they could heal you, but the tunnel lit up from the glow of this tree. Something told me to bring you to it, and when we laid your body in front of it, the roots of the tree came out of the ground to cocoon you into a ball of energy and light. You have been in there for a full week now."
“Selene was truly watching over you,” Wes said, a hint of awe in his voice.
They had no clue how true that statement really was. I had to hold back a scoff at the accuracy of his words.
I tilted my head up to look at Tian as I asked, "What happened to Christofer?"
I didn’t like the idea of anyone trying to hurt him, despite what he’d done. He was just a kid. A misguided and broken one at that. He had just lost his dad in front of his eyes. That was bound to mess anyone up.
Tian's chest rumbled against my back, but Wes was the one who answered, his voice filled with a degree of iciness I hadn't expected from him, "He's been banished from these grounds. We discussed exiling him as a lone wolf, but seeing as he is a child, we did not. He is welcome to find his pack somewhere out there in the world, as long as it isn't where you are."
A kernel of anger blossomed in my chest at that being Christofer's fate. He was just a child who had lost his father. How could they send him out to fend for himself? It was cruel.
"I see the fire in your eyes, Kitten," Seth observed, a warning glint in his eyes. "It was decided by a unanimous vote from all of us. You are our number one priority, and we won't allow anyone who can fall prey to our enemies so easily to be around you."
I pushed myself out of Tian's arms, which didn't feel so warm anymore now that I knew he had been a part of this. All of them had.
I caught Morgan's gaze as I stood, and she quickly averted her eyes, incriminating herself as well.
My jaw clenched, and I forced myself to relax it enough to speak, "He is a child who watched his father die before his eyes. Of course he took the only opportunity presented to bring him back. Are you guys seriously that dense or cold-blooded? Or both?"
