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“We lost him,” Roman replied, the words leaden with guilt. He zeroed his focus in on Jack, who stood with Kylar near the back of the group, ice pack melting in his clenched hand. “Same with you. When and how the fuck didyouget here? And why isn’t Atlas with you?”

“He has a concussion,” Ivy said. “He can’t remember anything that happened during the explosion.”

“Paramedics found him up in Ardesia,” Max chimed in, still looking burdened by his disappearing sister.

“Ardesia?” Roman echoed. His brows lowered, throwing his golden brown eyes into darkness. “You can’t remember how you got there?”

“Not really. But I remember you killing the Basilisk,” Jack said, speaking to Darien now, whose gaze was still glued to Loren. The black had left his eyes, but without it he looked…tortured. As if the sight of her here, in a city on the verge of complete collapse, physically pained him.

“What?”snapped several mouths, multiple heads whipping around to look at Darien.

Loren was still so distracted by the simple fact that he was here, she barely registered the others’ outbursts. She shot Dallas a bewildered glance, her mind backpedaling.

Basilisk?

Jack’s expression shifted with uncertainty. “That really happened, didn’t it?” he asked Darien.

But Darien didn’t answer, his attention wholly on Loren. “Turn around,” he instructed. “Let me look at you.”

“I’m fine,” she said quietly, well aware that everyone was listening, watching. Everyone who’d left Roman’s house last night was here now—all except Tanner and Shay.

“Turn,” Darien gritted out.“Around.”

She crossed her arms, refusing to be a spectacle. “No.”

A muscle twitched in his jaw. “Yes.” He fought the edge in his tone as he added, “Please.”

She stared at him in challenge, but he didn’t back down.

So she relented, desperate to get this over with. She began to spin in a circle, arms held out as if modelling an outfit for him, entirely forgetting about her back until?—

Darien inhaled sharply through his teeth. “What the fuck happened to your back?”

Oops. She should have argued for longer.

“I’m fine,” she said quickly. She tried to turn back around?—

But Darien was already there, carefully pushing her hair over one shoulder. She bit back a cry as the strands that were glued to the butchered flesh threatened to rip her scabs right off.

He hissed again, rubbing his stubbled chin. “Fuck me, baby.”

“I said I’m fine—it barely hurts anymore.”

‘You’re not fine,’Bandit grumbled from Darien’s shadow, the dog allowing his words to be heard by everyone. Loren’s face warmed from all the attention. So much for not being a spectacle.‘She is not fine. She needs a Healer.’

Before Loren had a chance to argue, Darien said, “Wait here.”

She fully turned back around, desperate to hide her destroyed upper back from prying eyes, and watched as Darien crossed the space to the desk. He spoke quietly to the receptionist, who, like everyone else in the area—family, friends, strangers—alsowatched her.

Gods.

“I’m very sorry, but you’ll simply have to wait,” the woman told him. “There’s nothing I can do.”

He pushed off the desk and came back this way, looking just as pissed as when he’d pinned Malakai against the wall. His eyes weren’t black, though—that was a small improvement.

“Come with me,” Darien said to Loren, gesturing for her to follow him. To the others he said, “We’ll be back in a bit. Roman can fill you in.”

Roman’s brows bumped up. “I can?” he asked, looking like he had no idea where to begin and felt a little irritated that he was being volunteered.