Page 41 of Caelum

EIGHT

NESTOR

The ache went so much deeper than my head or body. Literally, every bone hurt. I was sure of it. So sure, I wanted to swallow the whole packet of pills the doctor gave me whenever he dosed me up with the meds.

Even though I was being kicked out of the sickbay today, I was well aware I wasn’t fully healed.

Whatever those bastards had done to me, it had been more than just fangs to the throat.

I knew how close I’d come, how near death I’d been, and only Frazer, of all people, had spared me.

To say I owed him was an understatement, and my Pack did too, otherwise they’d have been attending a funeral. Which was ironic considering how glum they’d been whenever they visited.

Their eyes had burned with the need to tell me something, and only knowing that I was being kept out of the loop made me happy to be leaving sickbay, even though I was sure it was too early for me to be going anywhere in a vertical position.

The fact I was allowing Eve to push me out in a wheelchair was testament enough.

Whenever she moved, the packet of pills the nurse had given her rattled, taunting me, and I murmured, “You can let me have them, Eve. I won’t swallow them all in one go.” Even if I wanted to.

A slight laugh escaped her, and I clutched that to me like a hug. The momentum of the chair stopped, then the packet was handed over to me. I curled my fingers around them tightly and released a breath as I fought the desire to swallow two more of the small pills.

I hurt.

And each step Eve took reminded me of that.

As we approached the elevator, the only one in the Academy, I tipped my head back into Eve’s belly. She didn’t startle at the intimacy, and I was glad for that. If anything, when we made it inside the metal coffin, she ran her hand over my head in a soothing gesture.

The gentle touch felt so good that I released a sigh, loving the easy affection that was loaded down with bone-deep care. The feeling was mutual; I knew that. Pack. It warmed me to my soul.

“How are you feeling?” she rasped, her voice low now that we were alone together.

“Tired. Hurting,” I admitted, unashamed because it was her. With the others, I’d have denied it, but not with her.

She made an aggravated sound and mumbled, “I was about to say you’ll be in your own bed soon, but I’m not sure how we’ll get you up those stairs.”

The prospect had filled me with dread. There were four sets of stairs to get to my rooms, and that was sure as hell something I wasn’t looking forward to.

“When I get up, I won’t be coming back down for a while. That’s for fucking sure.”

“I don’t understand why they won’t let you stay there. You’ve only been in there for two days!”

“I’m okay, Eve,” I reassured her. “And that’s the point. We’re supposed to fend for ourselves.”

“Well, it’s horrible.”

My lips curved. “This isn’t a children’s hospital,” I reminded her. “They’re building an army, not a charity.”

“That’s stupid,” she huffed, but she fell silent as the doors opened onto the main foyer.

It was jam-packed with people scurrying to classes, over to the gym, and down to the common rooms. This place was the heart of Caelum, and each corridor that ran from it was an artery or vein.

Over six hundred people, four hundred of them kids, roamed these halls, and it was easy to mistake it for anything other than what it was—a training camp.

The shutters had long since been pulled from my eyes. Caelum was a haven for our kind, sure, but it was a haven that came with a double-edged sword .

You lived here, you became a part of their cause. I didn’t have a problem with that, but at times like these? Yeah, a bit of softness would have been nice.

The only way they’d let you stay in the sickbay for longer than a day or two was if you were unconscious. The second you were awake, you were out of there.

Eve pushed me down the foyer and toward the staircase that led to the building where my quarters were housed. As we moved, I noticed the looks we were receiving, and though at first I thought it was because I was in a wheelchair, that the students were flickering through the gossip over what had gone down in Aboh, I soon realized it wasn’t.

They were aimed at Eve.

What was that about?

The looks were nervy, edgy. Like she was a loose cannon and they were terrified they’d be caught in the backlash…

But the question was, what backlash?

Christ, I’d been in the sickbay for two days, not two months. I hated being kept out of the damn loop.

Though I inwardly grumbled, I took note of each kid, older and younger than me, that shot Eve a look from the corner of their eye before scurrying along. It made the journey go faster than anticipated, which meant the dreaded stairs drew nearer.

The prospect of being stuck in my quarters for a few days didn’t please me either, to be honest. Not unlike Eren, I didn’t spend much time there. The pair of us didn’t sleep that well, and when we did, it was usually anywhere but our rooms. Eren had a habit of falling asleep in the common room we’d staked out as ours many moons ago. Me? I usually camped out on Dre’s sofa. It was comfortable as hell.

For however long it took me to get back on my feet, though, I’d be in my bedroom and that? Fuck, it scared me more than I wanted to admit.

As we bypassed the foyer with its intimidatingly high walls, which were loaded down with creatures who’d made Caelum proud over its relatively short lifespan, I had to admit to feeling crowded.

Expectations were high here at the Academy, and the fact we were the only people in the world who were capable of defending against Ghoul attacks was something we all had to wrestle with from a young age.

Fighting the good fight, as it were, was an ageless and thankless battle. Nobody except for our Pack cared if we lived or died, and that was hard. Very hard.

As we paused in the foyer to let a long phalanx of fourteen-year-olds head toward the gym, Eve patted me on the shoulder. I wasn’t sure what made me do it, but I reached up and grabbed her hand, entwining her fingers with mine. The second our palms connected, I released a soft sigh. Relief swirled inside me, and the connection of being grounded was close to overpowering.

I was almost disappointed when the kids finally made it out of the way, each one having shot Eve a furtive glance that bounced off our connected hands, and we could head on toward the staircase that led to my part of the building.

Unsurprised to see my brothers waiting for me there, I nonetheless cocked a brow at the sight of Frazer, Reed, and Samuel hovering too.

Still, I wasn’t about to say anything when Frazer had been the one to save my ass.

Thinking that now was the best time to get it over with, I shot Frazer a tight smile. “Thank you. I owe you a life debt.”

Frazer’s smile was equally as tight, equally as uneasy. “Not necessary. At least, not anymore.” He shot Eve a look, one that had the tension in her soaring until she cleared her throat and shuffled around so she could peer down at me.

“Nestor? How are we going to get you upstairs?”

I winced. “With great difficulty.”

“It would be a lot easier if you were a girl. I’m sure one of them,” she stuck out her thumb and motioned over her shoulder at the gathering of six, “would carry you up the stairs.”

My lips curved. “I’m sure life in general would be a lot easier too.”

Her nose crinkled. “I think it’s easier peeing standing up than sitting down, Nestor,” she told me, her tone earnest, and behind her, the guys all started snickering. “What?” she demanded, glowering at them. “It’s true! I’ve always thought that.” A shudder washed over her. “Back at the compound, the outhouses were vile. The men never used them save for…” Another clearing of her throat. “How did we get onto this topic again?”

“All you,” I assured her with a small laugh, but my smile was genuine this time. How did she always know what to say to make me feel better?

Even if it wasn’t with words, it was with tone.

She held out her hands and planted her feet. “Come on, let’s get you upright.”

“Erm, Eve? I think we’d be better off helping him,” Eren pointed out, but I sensed his amusement too.

“Nope,” she replied. “He’s going to be stubborn about this. I can feel it in my bones. ”

Because she wasn’t wrong, I just gave her a sheepish shrug, grabbed her hands, and let her haul me up onto my feet.

Pain instantly cascaded through me. How I contained the whimper that longed to fall from my mouth, I’d never know.

With a shudder that caused more pain, I managed to straighten up and was rewarded with an agonizing hug from Eve. She curved her arms around me, squeezing me so tightly I could feel her relief that I was well.

Touched, I tipped my chin and pressed my face into the curve of her throat. She smelled divine, and my gouille , quiet and sulking since Aboh, flickered to life in response—her own Gargoyle was in charge today too.

The desire to kiss her was overwhelming, and I didn’t understand it, didn’t really know why it was there, burning a hole in my gut when I was hurting from the Ghoul’s attack. But regardless of why, it was there, and it was powerful and felt like it took over everything that made me me .

I struggled to force myself away from her embrace, and when I did, I was surprised to see the unease on Reed, Frazer, and Stefan’s faces.

Deciding that whatever was going on with them could be dealt with later, I switched my focus to the stairs. They were beyond a nightmare, but I allowed Eren to haul my arm over his shoulder, and let Dre do the same to my other side.

As they helped heft me up the stairs, I turned to Dre, panting, “You’ve bulked up since…” I frowned. “Fuck, how long was I out for?” I knew I’d been in the sickbay for two days and the evening I’d arrived—not enough time for my brother to turn into a bodybuilder.

Dre snorted. “Long story. On the good side, my knee is healed now.” Behind us, Stefan cleared his throat, and Dre pulled a face then mumbled, “We can explain more when you’re in your room.”

The cloak and dagger shit had my eyebrows pinching. And what the fuck was this with his knee?

He’d been injured in a car crash when he was a boy, and ever since, his knee had been a mess. Now it was healed? Was there a genie around handing out wishes or something? If that were the case, then I’d wish for a dreamless night’s sleep without being awoken after Padre Jimenez flung holy water in my face…

“Okay,” I drawled, then winced as my knees almost buckled when the steps curved and we had to change the angle of our path.

Behind me, I heard a sudden hissing sound, but turning around just wasn’t in my wheelhouse at that moment.

Eren looked over his shoulder though, and when he did, he frowned. “Eve? What is it? ”

“My palms,” she rasped, and her voice was loaded with such acute agony, that regardless of my own suffering, I had to look back at her. When I did, I saw her staring down at them, and then my eyes widened at the state of her palms.

Both of them were bright red from the ink that was being etched into the tender flesh. As we watched, two emblems were formed by the writing scrawling around them. It was like someone had put a pattern in the center and had written around it. Like iron filings around a magnet.

On one palm, there was the open maw of a bear, and on the other? The distinctive wings of a gouille .

What the fuck had just happened?