Page 17 of The Last Aether

Voices rose from outside, the royal guard circling the building.

Atlas moved in closer, his hands framing my face. “That doesn’t sound like you’re okay.”

“Just a little sore.” I looked around the room, my gaze stilling on the shattered window, then it snapped to each of the men in the room. “Are you okay? No one’s hurt, right?”

“We’re fine,” Phoenix assured me.

But he was wrong. I’d frozen on Kai, his worried expression fixed on me. I couldn’t look away from his arm. Blood soaked the shoulder of his white T-shirt.

“Kai,” I croaked.

“We’re all okay, Pip.”

“You’re not.”

He looked down at himself, taking in the blood. “Shit.”

I was on my feet in a flash, moving to his side. “We need to get you a healer. You need to lay down.” But I didn’t want him in here. Not in a room where someone could so easily see our locations.

As gently as possible, I pushed him towards the stairs. “We need to get you to your room. Someone get me some towels. And someone get a healer.”

Kai stilled in the hallway, turning. “I’ll be fine. Take a breath.”

Tears burned the backs of my eyes. “You don’t know that. We need to make sure.”

He pressed his forehead to mine. “Okay. I’ll go upstairs and you can check me over.”

I nodded, hurrying Kai up the stairs. I didn’t miss the wince as he walked. The blood dripping down his arm.

Phoenix appeared next to us, a stack of towels in his arms. “Riven’s getting the medical kit.”

“What about a healer?”

Phoenix winced. “We can’t. He’ll start healing on his own with your contact. The healer would know that we’ve bonded.”

“I don’t give a damn. He needs help.”

Kai took my hand and squeezed. “He’s right. You guys will get me patched up in no time.”

My heart hammered in my chest as we moved into Kai’s bedroom. Phoenix laid a towel on the bed, and I helped Kai sit. He grunted as he lay back. “Fuck, that doesn’t feel happy.”

I bit the inside of my cheek so hard I tasted blood. “We need to get his shirt off.”

“There are scissors in the med kit,” Atlas said, charging into the room with Riven.

Riven set the kit on the bed and pulled out a pair of scissors.

“Man, I loved this shirt,” Kai moaned.

“I think the blood already ruined it,” Riven muttered.

I sent a scowl in his direction and then got to work cutting Kai’s shirt. I sliced up the middle and then very carefully down the sleeve. There, in the center of his shoulder, was a tiny bullet hole. My throat tightened. “How do we know if the bullet’s out?”

“Let me.” Atlas moved to my side, hovering his hand over Kai’s wound. His brows drew together in concentration. “No metal in the wound.”

Quincy moved into the room, holding up a tiny, warped piece of silver. “Found it embedded in the back wall.”

“We need to clean the wound so it doesn’t get infected. And how do I help him heal?” The panic had ahold of me and wasn’t letting go. Too much blood.