Free Web NovelChapter 55: Chapter FIFTY FIVE — BACK TO LIFE
Candace
Something warm and wet brushed across my cheek and I tried to turn away from it. The movement sent a wave of agony crashing through my body, so intense I couldn’t tell where one pain ended and another began.
Everything hurt. My throat felt flayed raw and my lungs burned with every breath as though I’d swallowed fire and even drawing air into my chest felt like inhaling embers.
The wet thing nudged my cheek again.
Cookie, Star’s voice drifted through my mind, faint and sluggish. That’s Cookie.
My eyelids felt impossibly heavy but I managed to force them open. The ceiling of my room came into focus and I shifted my head slightly and pain pulsed through my skull.
My vision blurred for a moment and then I blinked rapidly until the room became clearer around me. Reign was kneeling beside the bed, asleep, his head resting on the mattress near my hand which he still held in both of his.
His dark hair was disheveled and he looked younger somehow, more like the boy I’d grown up with, the boy who had once been my friend.
On my other side Ragnor lay stretched across the blankets, fully dressed, one arm tucked beneath his head and his face turned toward me with his gray eyes closed. frёeweɓηovel.coɱ
The sight of them sent memories rushing back. There had been a time when I was fourteen and burning with a fever so severe my parents hadn’t slept for days.
I’d woken in the middle of the night to find all four Pendragon brothers crowded around my bed, River sitting cross-legged on the floor with a book in his lap and Reign already asleep in a chair and Ryker and Ragnor on either side of me.
Dad had come to check on me at dawn and the moment he’d seen all five of us crammed into my room he’d laughed so hard he’d had to step outside.
I reached for Star carefully and she still sounded groggy. We’re fine.
A white blur entered my line of sight and Cookie shoved her fluffy face against mine with her tail wagging furiously and licked my cheek again and let out an excited bark.
I cleared my throat and Reign’s head snapped up immediately. His hazel eyes blinked once and then locked onto mine and widened.
"Candace?" His voice came out rough from sleep and he tightened his grip on my hand. "Candace, you’re awake."
Ragnor bolted upright at the same moment.
"Guards." His voice cut through the room.
"Get the physician. Now." Footsteps sounded immediately in the hallway.
Reign leaned toward me with his elbows on the mattress. "What do you need? What can I get you? How do you feel?"
"Water." The word scraped out of my throat and he was gone before I’d finished saying it.
Seconds later he returned with a glass and Ragnor slid an arm carefully behind my shoulders and helped me sit up.
The water soothed my throat instantly and I drank greedily because every swallow felt like relief.
"More?" Reign asked. freёwebnovel.com
I shook my head and Ragnor reached for a napkin from the bedside table and gently wiped away the water that had escaped down my chin and neck. I turned my face slightly away from his hand.
When had all this started?
"How long has it been?"
The last thing I remembered was arguing with Reign in the kitchen, his hands braced against the wall on either side of me and his voice low and dangerous.
The day another man puts his hands on you, that’ll be the last thing those hands ever do.
Then I’d left him and after that the memory hit me sharply, a prick in my neck, an injection and someone in my room waiting for me. Ever since I tended to that stranger, I had prepared for it.
"It’s been three days," Ragnor answered, adjusting the blankets over my legs.
His scent filled the room and so did Reign’s, strong and fresh and everywhere. Had they really stayed here for three days? That couldn’t be right.
Maybe the poison was still clouding my head. Wasn’t I just a murderer’s daughter? A traitor’s child? Why would they stay beside me after everything they’d done and said?
I inhaled carefully and a frown pulled at my forehead. Where was Ryker?
I pushed the blankets aside and swung my legs over the edge of the bed.
"Where are you going, Candy?" Reign rose immediately and caught my arm and Ragnor reached for me from the other side and I shoved weakly at both of them.
The effort was pathetic and my body felt like it belonged to someone else entirely but they understood the message and stepped back.
Slowly I slid off the bed and planted my feet on the carpet. The room tilted and I grabbed the bedpost before I could fall.
I hadn’t told anyone about the camera. Only the guard who had helped me install it knew it was there. The device was small and hidden behind one of the decorative carvings near the top of the far wall, perfectly angled toward the door.
I crossed the room in slow and painful steps with every muscle protesting the movement. My shoulders screamed when I reached up and detached the recorder from its hiding place and then I turned and my legs gave out beneath me.
Ragnor was there before I hit the floor and his arms wrapped around me and lifted me effortlessly.
"You shouldn’t be walking around yet." Concern tightened his voice. "The pack doctor is on her way and she needs to examine you and—"
I held the recorder up between us. "I had this installed." Both of them went silent, exchanging glances. My fingers tightened around the device. "Whoever attacked me should be on here."
Reign closed the distance immediately and took the recorder from my hand and his hazel eyes scanned it before returning to my face.
Pure, undiluted fury blazed in them.
"Let’s find out which unfortunate bastard thought attacking you was a good idea."
