Apollo
I didn’t want to leave her.
Charlie’s skin had just begun to warm again—soft, familiar color chasing away the death-gray that had clung to her lips. The healer said she was stable, the venom no longer spreading. But that didn’t stop the relentless gnaw of guilt in my chest… or the simmering rage I was barely keeping caged beneath my skin.
Stay, my dragon demanded. Its voice was rough, guttural, primitive. She needs us.
“I’ll be back before she wakes,” I whispered aloud, brushing a hand down her fevered cheek. “She won’t be alone.”
I couldn’t let her wake in that sterile white room with only pain and fear for company. Not again. Not after everything.
And if Arion thought this was going to end with a diplomatic apology and a handshake, he was about to discover just how wrong he
