Page 59 of Nicoli

“You killed him,” she murmurs against my chest.

“Baby, I’ll kill a thousand men and tear out their hearts for you.”

“If you didn’t show up when you did…”

“Shh.” I cup the back of her head, pressing her harder against me. “Don’t go there, okay?”

“I felt him, Nicoli. He was seconds away from raping me.”

I grind my teeth, and the flames of hell light up in my gut as I take her face between my palms, forcing her to look at me. “It’ll be a cold day in hell if I ever let another man touch you again, you understand? No one will come near you, not while I’m around.”

A knock on the bathroom door makes me pause. “Nicoli?” Leandra’s voice echoes through the foggy air. “Alexius wants to talk to you.”

“Of course he does.”

“Is she…is she okay?”

“I’m fine,” Mira replies and slips past me as she steps out, grabbing a towel.

“Oh, thank God.” Leandra exhales a sigh of relief and wraps her arms around Mira in an embrace. “Thank God you’re okay.”

“I’m fine.”

Leandra’s still hugging her when she looks up at me, silently conveying that this shit is far from over. “Your brother needs to see you.”

“He can wait.”

“No,” she replies sternly. “Go see your brother. I’ll stay and take care of her.”

I don’t want to leave her. I don’t want to leave her ever again. If I can have my way, she’d be fused to me for eternity. But, unfortunately, that’s not possible, and neither is avoiding Alexius.

I grab a towel and roughly dry my face and hair. Then, without thinking, I pull Mira close and press my lips against her temple, wishing there was a way I could make her see into my heart. Give her a glimpse of what she’s worth to me. “I’ll be back soon,” I promise her before heading out.

I throw on the first pair of sweatpants I can find and pull a t-shirt over my head, slip on some shoes and hastily rush out of the room, down the stairs. Maximo is waiting for me outside the Dark Sovereign chamber, and he looks fucking miserable.

“Everyone here?” I ask, and he nods.

“Good,” I mutter. “Let’s get this over with.”

Maximo steps in front of me and puts his hand on my chest. His jaw is anchored in a clench, and his brows furrow. For a moment, I’m sure he’s about to kick my ass.

“Thank you,” is all he says. It’s all he needs to say. And I know that whatever is about to go down, whatever the repercussions, he has my back because we both care about her. She’s all he has left in this world, and to me, sheisthe fucking world.

Alexius is pacing like a caged animal when I walk in, the stifling air thick with a smoky haze from Caelian’s cigar.

Isaia is pouring three glasses of bourbon, but when he catches sight of me, he grabs another glass. The room is so tense you can almost hear a pin drop as Alexius turns to face me. “How is she?”

“She’s okay.”

“He didn’t—”

“No. No, he didn’t.” I don’t give him a chance to finish that sentence because I don’t want to hear the goddamn words come out of anyone’s mouth.

I slam back my glass of bourbon in one gulp and let the burning liquid scorch my throat. “How bad is it?”

Alexius scoffs. “It’s bad. Real fucking bad.”

“That’s unfortunate.” Sarcasm is webbed around my words. I don’t give a damn about how bad it is because if I hadn’t gotten to her in time, it would have been far worse.

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