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“I’ll go and get Fletcher,” Alex said, helping Hunter ease Bear to the floor. There was no way she was making her friend walk one more step now that they were safe.

“Wait! Alex—”

“I’ll have him here in a jiffy!” Alex yelled over her shoulder as she sprinted up the staircase and out of the Tower into the night.

It was only when the biting wind and buffeting snow lanced across her exposed flesh that she understood why Hunter had called for her to wait. Dressed in her cut-off shorts, cami and boots, the little she did wear was soaked with both creek water and sweat—hardly appropriate attire for journeying around the wintry campus. But she wasn’t about to go back now, and she sprinted on through the freezing cold towards the Gen-Sec building, grateful for her Meyarin speed.

As she ran, she wished she could go up to her room and grab somelaendrafor Bear, but she couldn’t risk being asked how it had come to be in her possession. While not as instantaneous as the Meyarin flower, she knew Fletcher’s medicines would fix him swiftly enough, so she continued onwards, barely slowing in time to burst through the doors of the Med Ward.

Fletcher, fortunately, was there, and upon learning of Bear’s injury, he didn’t waste time before grabbing a bag of supplies and hurrying towards the exit.

When Alex made to follow, he held up his hand in a ‘stop’ gesture.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

Confused, she answered, “Coming with you.”

“Not dressed like that,” he said firmly. “You’ll catch your death out there.”

“I’m—”

“We can stand here and keep arguing or you can agree to stay so I can go and help Bear,” Fletcher said. “What’ll it be, Alex?”

Knowing every second they argued was a second longer Bear remained in pain, Alex grudgingly said, “Fine. I’ll stay.”

With a warning in his eyes that if she reneged, there would be consequences, Fletcher took off, leaving Alex alone.

Only—shewasn’talone.

In her haste to alert Fletcher to Bear’s injury, she hadn’t so much as glanced around the rest of the Med Ward—a mistake she was now deeply regretting.

I hate my life, she thought with a resigned sigh as she noted the two others standing in the room. Perhaps Kakuwasa deity, and one who had cursed Alex to have bad luck for the rest of her life. Because, of all the people in the world, it justhadto be Kaiden and Declan who now stood before her, both visibly shocked by her appearance.

She could hardly blame them. Thanks to her mad dash through the jungle, her skin was scratched enough to look like she’d been in a vicious catfight—and lost. Her body was coated in muddy grime from the creek, her hands were sliced from A’enara, and her wrists and ankles were chaffed raw from her bindings. All in all, she was one hot mess.

Alex had to admit, seeing Kaiden and Declan while looking like she’d stepped off the set of a Tomb Raider movie was right near the top of her ‘Things to avoid in life’ list. But she somehow managed to hide her embarrassment—or so she hoped.

“Hey,” she said, giving an ultra cool head nod that was anything but ultra cool.

“You look terrible,” Kaiden said, walking straight over to her with Declan following close behind.

“Just what every girl longs to hear,” Alex quipped, but her heart wasn’t in it.

She didn’t fight him when he gently guided her to sit on one of Fletcher’s beds before retrieving a vial of green pain reliever from across the room.

“It’s not as bad as it looks,” Alex said, taking the proffered medicine when he pointedly nudged it closer. “Really. I have something back in my dorm that’ll help take the edge off.”

“Friends don’t let friends do drugs, Alex,” Declan said.

“That’s not what I—” Alex broke off when she caught the laughter in his eyes and instead grumbled, “You’re hilarious.”

In an effort to keep from saying anything else unintentionally implicit, she swallowed the pain reliever. Kaiden then handed her another vial, this one filled with an orangey liquid, and with a sigh, she downed it as well, not bothering to ask what it contained. Heat instantly flooded her veins, and the shivers that she hadn’t noticed wracking her frame began to settle.

“Mmm,” she said, peering into the now empty vial. “I like that one.”

Both Declan and Kaiden chuckled, before Kaiden moved off again and returned with some of Fletcher’s healing ointment.

“Since when do you play nursemaid?” Alex asked when he reached for her left hand and started massaging the vanilla-scented salve into her skin. She wasn’t sure whether she felt awkward from his ministrations or just plain grateful that someone was taking care of her.