Page 82 of Jinx

The truth of his words settled heavily in my chest, but they couldn’t smother my lingering fear. “I’m a liability, Bellamy. The weakest link in the drift.”

His face fell, guilt haunting his eyes. “Q, I⁠—”

“I’m not blaming you,” I plowed on. “I’m stating a fact. She may not want me when she finds out what I…” The words trailed off, but my brother gave me a swift shake.

“You’re worrying over nothing,” he said. “Cordie’s not letting you go. Just tell her the truth. That’s all she wants from you.”

I knew he was right, but before I could reply, my gryphon raked impatient talons over my ribs—he was done waiting. “Let’s find our girl.”

We made our way back to the waiting room where Alaric and Lucian hadn’t moved an inch. We traded looks and Lucian moved smoothly to the reception desk. At least we were all on the same page. His posture changed as he walked, shoulders relaxing while an inviting smile curled his lips. Even from here I could see the effect he had on the woman behind the counter. When he returned, his expression was grim.

“Fifth floor, room 537,” he reported. “Rami is in the ICU. He just came out of his second surgery.”

“Second surgery?” Alaric repeated, his voice tight.

Lucian’s face crumpled as he relayed the extent of the damage. “It…it’s not looking good,” he finished.

My blood ran cold, and my body was moving before I even gave it the command. The elevator door slid open as soon as Bel hit the call button. As it ascended, a terrible thought gnawed at my mind.

What if the explosion wasn’t an accident? What if Cordelia had been targeted? Was anywhere safe?

The doors opened on the fifth floor to reveal a dimly lit hallway. It was almost midnight, and the corridor was quiet. Without staff to interfere, we found her room easily.

She was pale and bruised, with an IV in her arm and monitors beeping steadily beside her. There was a bandage on her forehead and another on her arm. And still, she was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.

It was time to stop fighting.

53

CORDELIA

I woke to an incessant beeping, the noise bouncing around my skull. Light stabbed at my eyes when I tried to open them, so I left them shut. My lips felt cracked, my throat raw, and I swallowed against a gnawing ache in my heart that rivaled whatever pain my body was feeling. Rami’s heartstring was fluttering weakly, like a bird with a broken wing.

“She’s waking up,” someone nearby murmured—Bellamy, I think—and a hand squeezed mine. Something wasn’t right. Why was I here when Rami felt so far away? I had to find him. He needed me.

“Easy, sweetheart,” Alaric said as I pried my eyes back open and tried to sit up. His hand was gentle but firm as he pressed me back to the mattress. “You’re pretty banged up.”

Banged up. The words drifted through flashes of memory that explained the fraying tether in my chest. A feral desperation clutched my heart, panic dripping through my veins alongside whatever the IV was pumping into me.

“Rami,” I croaked. Ric and Bellamy were on either side of me, Lucian and Quinn closer to the foot of the hospital bed. “Where is he?”

The guys exchanged a silent look that made my pulse spike. The monitor beside me betrayed the mounting anxiety.

“He’s in another part of the hospital.” Alaric’s thumb swept over my forehead with soothing strokes. “The doctors are taking good care of him.”

My last visions of him sliced through my mind like serrated blades. His weight. His blood. His shallow breaths. I remembered the paramedics pulling us apart, the heartstring between us stretching thinner and thinner until I blacked out.

“No.” I moved to rise again, ignoring the pain that shot down my spine. “They can’t help him. I need to go.”

“Baby, you need to rest.” Bellamy lifted the hand he was holding and pressed the back of it to his lips. “Rami’s going to be fine.”

“Rami’s in critical condition.” Quinn’s voice rose above Bel’s. He gripped the bed railing, his amber eyes locked on mine. “He had extensive damage to his lung and liver. He just came out of his second surgery because he started hemorrhaging again and went into shock.”

Alaric growled a warning beside me, but I didn’t need to be protected right now. I needed the truth, so I nodded at Quinn to keep going.

“They’ve induced a medical coma,” he said. “The prognosis is grim.”

“Gods dammit, Quinn!” Ric hissed, but I quieted him with a raised hand. Something was stirring inside me, some innate knowing etched deep into my bones. I felt it the moment I woke up. My magic shivered, no longer separate, but mine. I may not have known how to command it yet, but I trusted its instincts now.