I did immediately, my palms going to my aching skull as I doubled over from the negative energy scalding our connection.
Claire wept against Sol, Vox’s hands roaming over her form for signs of injury.
“What did you do?” Sol demanded.
Even if I could have managed to speak, I’d have had no response to that. Because I didn’t know. She was fine, and then she wasn’t.
And fuck my head hurt.
I gripped my hair and fell to my knees, trying to solve the chaos going on in my mind. It felt as if I’d been splintered, the dark mass thriving inside and hissing in fury.
No. Not fury.
Hunger.
What. The. Fuck.
A hand on my shoulder had me flinching, but Vox held on tighter, his mouth moving with soundless words. All I could hear were Claire’s screams.
Was that an apology on his lips?
I didn’t—
His fist connected with my skull, sending me into a pit of darkness that was all too familiar.
Claire…
No response.
She’d cut me off.
And I had no idea why.
Sol
“Why did we come all this way to save this Spirit Fae bastard again?” I asked on a growl.
Vox rubbed his knuckles where he’d punched the royal in the face, knocking him out cold. The force needed to knock Exos out had required the use of Vox’s wind.
Too bad I hadn’t been able to get in my own hit.
The Spirit Fae would look awesome with an earth-infused blemish.
Yet one glance at Claire’s pained expression as she rested against my chest, unconscious, stilled my violent desire. Whether I liked it or not, this was one of her mates.
Which meant I could never kill him.
“Because you believe in this mate circle-of-elements thing, right?” Vox muttered flatly, replying to my comment about retrieving Exos. “I doubt he did that on purpose. Whatever that was, it felt… wrong.”
I nodded, having sensed it, too. An inky, dark void that had reached out just for Claire, clawing over my connection to her to embolden its strides. I hadn’t liked how it felt at all, especially with my complete inability to stop it.
“We need to get them both back to the Spirit Quad,” Vox surmised, glancing at me with that silver-rimmed gaze that burned with determination. He’d finally opened up to Claire, even if just enough to feel what he could be for her, what she was to all of us. True mates compatible on the most intimate of levels.
He glanced down again at Claire in my arms. My grip on her instinctually tightened, wanting to protect her by using my own body as a shield against anything that would try to come at her again. “You’re going to have to let her go,” Vox murmured, giving me a sidelong smirk. “Before you crush her, that is.”
I loosened my grip. “I can carry her. She hardly weighs anything.”
Vox chuckled and pointed at the lopsided royal on the ground. “Well, he doesn’t, and I’m not carrying him all the way back to the Spirit Quad.” He glowered at me until I cursed.