Ezekiel guided him into the room, keeping an arm around his shoulders in comfort.
Kai felt his thoughts freeze, his breath suspend for a long, agonized moment.
Nikolaus lay still, drugged and unaware. A flashback to a time before…
He had aged, oh how he had aged. In so little time as a year, silver gleamed at his temples, though he was too young to bear such marks. His face, so strong and beautiful to Kai, was gaunt and drawn, cheeks hollowed, skin pale and sallow with ill health.
His body, so big and powerful, seemed shrunken beneath the warm covers, far too thin for his size. Reduced, vulnerable.
It was unbearable to see.
Kai stepped away from Ezekiel’s embrace. What was Niko now? What did Kai want him to be? Hurt from the past still simmered in his veins, yet now, seeing Niko like
