Page 100 of Empire of Dark

Several minutes passed and I attempted to ignore the panic and instead concentrated on eking clean air into the tiniest sliver of space in my lungs. The plane sped, the cushions underneath me starting to vibrate and we took off.

Shit.

My body started sliding downward on the couch with the take-off angle of the plane. With no way to move, in another three seconds I was bound to flop off down to the floor.

Just when I teetered on the edge of the cushions, Damen reappeared, glanced down at me with a frown on his face, then bent over to lift me up. He sat down, setting my head and shoulders on his lap, my butt and legs on the couch.

He flopped his left arm across my waist to hold me in place as the plane gained altitude.

His stare sank down to me, his lips terse. “This is why we don’t leave the castle.”

I blinked and my eyes closed for a long breath.

I deserved that.

When I opened my eyes, his gaze had drifted away from me, locked on the opposite wall of the plane.

I opened my mouth, but couldn’t get any sound out. The slight movement made me cough, though my chest could barely tense enough for it to do any good, and the sound came out in a tiny whimper.

He looked down at me, his glare eating into me, skewering me, which was appropriate, since I’d already been thoroughly smoked. “You were never behind me.”

I closed my eyes to him. I wasn’t and I’d damn well known it.

I cracked my lips again. “Ven—” A slight whisper, it was all I could scrape out.

“She’s not burned. It’s only the smoke in her.” He lifted his left arm to point to the rear of the plane. “She’s strapped in on the other side of the partition on the other couch.”

I looked to his lifted arm and my gut instant flipped over. The side of his torso was scorched black, blood and pus weeping along the edges of the skin that had mangled and charred with his shirt. It had to be agonizing, but I hadn’t seen the slightest twitch of pain on his face.

Anger, yes. Pain, no.

I tried to lift my fingers to the charred skin along his side, but I knew my arm wouldn’t move. I cleared my throat the best I could, wheezing in a breath. “Y—y—you’re burned.” Still a whisper of sound, but louder and full words.

He looked down at me. “And you’re not.”

I coughed, weak, but it gave my lungs enough margin of air to force more words out. “I wou—would have made it out. Eventually.” I sucked in a breath and he shifted his glare awayfrom me, staring at the wall of the plane again. “You should have waited.”

His jaw ticked and he shook his head, refusing to look down at me. “I’m not inclined to take chances with you.”

I steeled myself, trying to suck in more air. “Why put yourself in the way of pain”—I paused, gasping for another breath—“when you didn’t need to?”

He didn’t reply, didn’t look at me for an agonizing minute.

Then his gaze dropped down to me, still irate, still wanting to throttle me. His lips twisted to the side and he gave a slight shake of his head. “I’m damn well coming to the conclusion that I’ll do pretty much anything for you. That it is instinct, not even conscious thought, to come after you when you are in danger.”

A puff of air, smoke tinged, seeped from my lips.

He was in just as deep as I was.

Chapter Twenty-Six

{ ADA }

“There are cars coming up the drive.” Venetia pointed outward past both me and Damen.

Four weeks past the incident on Sardinia, our lives at the castle had drifted back into the easy routine that we were all comfortable with.

I was still deeply ensconced in Damen’s bed every night. During the day, Venetia and I would dive into tutoring while Damen was working.