Page 61 of Whispers of Wisteria (The Garden of Eternal Flowers #5)

Damen POV

(A few moments earlier…)

The shockwave slammed into me like a punch to the chest. For a second, I couldn’t even breathe. I just stood there, nails digging into my palms, while it echoed through the air once, then vanished.

Something had shifted in the energy between us. A strength that’d been locked away for lifetimes had been released.

Jin had let go. Titus could move again.

Which meant he’d be coming back soon.

“Outside,” I said, already striding for the door. Gregory’s brow furrowed and the others stared, but I didn’t have time to explain. “Now.”

I didn’t wait to see if they’d follow.

I was watching the clouds when Julian stepped next to me. The others lingered behind—of course they’d send him.

“What are you looking for?” he asked.

I looked back at the sky. “Titus can fly again.”

There was a collective pause over the group, and Miles stepped forward, joining us. “But he hasn’t been able to do that for ages.”

They didn’t doubt it, at least. They knew there were certain things only I could feel within our Quintet Bond.

“I know,” I replied. I couldn’t see him yet.

He’d finally stopped holding on to the past. And I should be happy, but I wasn’t. Only something devastating could have forced the change.

I didn’t want to think of what’d make him desperate enough. But it was, most definitely, regarding Bianca. There was nothing else.

Julian crossed his arms, expression severe, and joined the watch.

That’s when the silence hit.

It was different—we could all feel it this time. Julian stiffened and Miles staggered back as the numbness spread.

I clutched my chest against the loss as a piece of my soul was ripped away. There was only emptiness in that place where, an instant before, something of softness, warmth, and life had lived.

“Damen?” Bryce placed his hand on my shoulder. On the other side of us, Gregory and Joe stopped talking. “What’s—”

“She’s dead,” Miles interrupted. His eyes were wide with shock as he fell to his knees.

Julian didn’t speak, but had covered his eyes with his hand.

Dead.

Panic threatened to consume my thoughts.

I should have known Bailey was a trick. I shouldn’t have been fooled. Because this feeling—this—was what the void felt like.

“Dead?” Brayden, who’d been pacing, froze. “But…”

Bryce turned me to face him. His eyes were wild, and his voice shook. “Is it true?”

“It’s…” I didn’t want to say it—that’d make it more real. “Let’s not assume,” I said, mostly to myself. I had to keep it together.

Miles and Julian needed me to keep control.

I sucked in a breath, bracing myself, before calling Kiania.

But it wasn’t the tiger that responded.

Kasai arrived, lowering its head, as it greeted, ‘My lord.’

“I didn’t summon you.” My stomach turned uneasily. “Where’s Kiania?”

‘She is indisposed,’ Kasai said. ‘She’s been injured in battle.’

“Battle?” I repeated. “What battle?”

What in the world was going on?

‘Mu needed her,’ was Kasai’s cryptic reply. ‘So she was summoned.’

My hands went cold. “That’s not possible.”

‘I don’t know the details,’ Kasai responded. ‘But Kiania was fighting through contract with Mu.’

I covered my mouth.

Bianca.

“What is it?” Julian asked, and I glanced at him.

He couldn’t hear Kasai anymore. The energy had been broken.

“Bianca summoned Kiania,” I answered, clenching my fist. I’d joined their contract to prevent it from affecting her. I didn’t even know it could work in that way.

But if she summoned a shikigami, she’d be hurt. That magic was not compatible with her blood.

She would have been in so much pain.

“Why would she…” I began, not wanting to consider the implications.

“Because she would have been desperate,” Gregory snapped, completing the thought I didn’t want to acknowledge.

There was an ice-cold fury in his voice that I’d never heard before, and I couldn’t even bring myself to look at him.

It kept replaying in my thoughts.

Desperate.

My stomach began to turn.

I couldn’t allow myself to focus on the loss. If I did, there’d be no holding back. Already, I could feel the flames reaching for me, waiting to be released.

The world that Mu once believed in so much had failed her again. It was unforgivable.

But…

What if… maybe there was a chance.

An echoing roar shook the trees, and the glass shattered in the windows behind me. The knot in my stomach tightened.

Titus.

He’d been there. He’d been with her.

And there’d only be one reason he’d sound like that.

The thick gray clouds parted, the orange-red dawn had fully turned to morning, and Titus—in his fullest, most evolved form—flew toward us.

He roared again and my jaw tensed. He was going berserk. We had only moments before he destroyed everything.

I didn’t flinch as Titus practically crash-landed a few dozen feet away.

He turned human within a second, and I’d barely spotted Bianca before he folded around her. His body shielded her small form from view as his shoulders heaved in soundless cries.

It felt as though the breath was knocked from me.

He had her.

Julian was the first to react.

“Bianca!” He rushed forward, but he didn’t even touch her before Titus struck out, blindly swinging his arm as he let out a low growl.

“Stay back!” he snarled.

But Julian didn’t stop; panic was overriding all else. “Titus, let me see her. Maybe I can do something!”

He grabbed Titus’s shoulders and tried to drag him back, but the dragon was immovable.

I pushed down my rage and studied Julian instead. He wasn’t trying to get to her in grief.

This was something else.

Miles joined Julian, touching Titus’s back. “Titus, please. Let her go, just for a second.”

The fae stayed back—a wise decision, Titus wasn’t in any state to hold back—but Joe had stepped forward.

“Titus—” he began, but we both knew there was no use.

Logic wasn’t going to break through to him. He wouldn’t see that, right now, he was preventing the necromancers from doing what they needed.

I trusted them, even though I didn’t fully understand their plan.

I looked past the gathering darkness surrounding the fae and spotted my brother. He’d been silent, watching.

And, right now, his expression was broken as he stared.

I’d deal with that later.

“Finn.” I stepped forward, and his attention snapped to me. I moved to Titus, and Finn understood without words.

There was only one way to subdue a maniacal shifter.

We pushed back the others, the words already humming in my mind, focusing my concentration into a single point, and when I grabbed Titus’s shoulder, the white fire was waiting.

Titus roared, fighting it, refusing to let go, until both Finn and I wrangled him back.

Julian snatched Bianca the second Titus’s grip faltered.

I didn’t look after her—I couldn’t. The sight would make me lose focus.

Still, despite being held back both physically and through the spell, Titus raged. He lashed out, and sweat dampened my forehead as I fought to keep him pinned.

“I can’t hold him anymore,” Finn said as the dragon clawed at his arms.

I was beginning to agree. I leaned forward and pressed my forearm against the dragon’s neck. My shirt was stuck to my body from sweat, and my heart was pounding from effort, even outside of trying to keep the dragon at bay.

His reactions were… telling.

As Bianca’s mate, he’d be able to sense it.

She really was dead.

Suddenly, Miles was beside me. He slapped at my hands, pulling at my grip.

But it was Titus he addressed with his hurried words, “She’s alive.” He pressed his palm against the dragon’s chest, speaking to him as if he were a hurt animal. “Titus, it’s okay now. She’s still alive.”

Everything stopped.

I couldn’t breathe. The world seemed to still as I dropped my arm and moved to my knees.

I looked at where Julian had taken her. He was kneeling now, Bianca cradled in his lap like something broken.

She was alive. Miles had just said so.

Then why didn’t it look like it?

She was so still, limp, with her clothes shredded, soaked in blood, and barely covering her. I’d never seen her so pale. Her skin was covered in handprints, bruises, and bites. Her face was swollen, her hair matted to her forehead.

I felt the fire rise in my throat before I could stop it.

I’d thought she’d be safe, and now she looked like this.

My observations drifted lower before I spotted them.

“Her wings…” I said numbly. They were a limp gold and green that rested over Julian’s leg and on top of the grass like a blanket.

My vision blanked at the edges.

I’d known that she’d had them, of course, but they weren’t accessible every lifetime. Sometimes, there was just never a need.

And with me, in less than two months, her survival instinct had already been triggered.

I collapsed to the ground beside Julian. I’d failed.

Julian pressed his forehead gently to hers, his whole body tense, and a ripple of magic passed between them. A coldness crawled across the ground, bringing goosebumps to my skin.

She was barely breathing, and so still.

How was she even alive?

“What’s wrong with her?” Miles asked, kneeling on the other side of her. “Should we take her to the hospital?”

“No,” Joe answered, stepping forward with his hands behind him. He was uncharacteristically serious as he gazed at Julian. “It’s too late for their help. Let her stabilize before we move.”

Gregory stopped staring at Bianca and looked at him.

“She was dead,” Joe continued, seemingly talking to him more than any of us. “Still is—spiritually. She’s breathing because Julian has tethered her to him, and he breathes. She has to be near for him to maintain it. Modern medicine won’t help. It’s not ethical magic, but it might work.”

“Might?” Gregory’s voice was cold. Still, he stepped forward and placed his coat over her, shielding her from the cool morning air.

“She has to want to come back,” Joe said, shrugging. “She’s in rough shape, but it’s the energy depletion that’s your real concern. But between us, we can fix that.”

Julian was still holding Bianca to him, but now his focus was on her face. He ran his thumb along her jaw, and his expression dropped further.

The only indication of his own discomfort was in his stiff movements.

“Where are the others?” Titus spoke suddenly.

“Maria, Ada, and Gloria called in. Declan’s group is there now,” I answered. “They’re safe.”

“I don’t care that they’re safe,” Titus snapped. “They’re made to handle it. I care that Bianca was alone.”

Ah… I’d forgotten how ruthless shifters could be.

“She couldn’t speak and could hardly stand,” Titus continued, still in a quiet fury. “I want to know why she was ever allowed to be in that condition. Why was she there if they could still move?”

“Maria said Bianca wouldn’t leave,” Miles said, tone unreadable. “She wanted to get to you.”

Titus’s features hardened as he watched Bianca. He seemed to be considering something.

“I told her to hide,” he said finally. “She refused. But if she hadn’t broken Jameson’s spell, we’d still be trapped.”

“Jameson’s spell?” My necklace burned against my skin.

“It was why I couldn’t break out,” Titus replied. “Someone from the Underworld was helping them. Bianca intervened.”

The… Underworld.

My realm.

My heart pounded as my blood roared.

There was one obvious suspect. He hadn’t exactly made his feelings a secret, even though I hadn’t admitted the depths to anyone—

Belial.

“How…” I sounded distant, even to myself. He’d always seemed so insignificant—an annoyance—but I also knew him.

He would latch on to Bianca like a leech.

The dread pooled in my stomach. “How did she intervene?”

“I don’t know,” Titus said. “But whatever happened, it let me escape. Then I killed Albert for touching her.”

I couldn’t look away from her battered form. She’d done something reckless and self-sacrificing—I was sure of it.

“Jameson attacked. He wanted to keep her, so she summoned Kiania to get away,” Titus continued, voice echoing distantly as I stared. “He didn’t care about me anymore.”

There was a growing unease I couldn’t ignore.

“Then Bianca pushed me out of the plane,” Titus added. “She followed. We flew, she collapsed, and now we’re here.”

She pushed him out of a plane?

I couldn’t even laugh.

“Joe,” Gregory cut in. “How long before she can be moved?”

Joe blinked as Julian startled. The two necromancers looked at each other, silent, before Joe finally said, “Now, I suppose.”

“Good.” Gregory stepped forward, and I knew it was coming before he said a word. “We’re taking her to Mr. Damen’s house.”

My protest died in my throat. That… wasn’t what I expected. “What?”

“I will not have her wake up to an unfamiliar location—not after this. Mr. Miles and Mr. Jonathon will be reinforcing your wards today,” Gregory said.

Miles opened his mouth, but Gregory held up his hand.

“Dr. Duff has betrayed us; you do not get to argue.” He looked at me, “I trust you have no objections.”

I blinked. “Well, no, but—”

“When she is back to herself, she will be going to Whisperwind,” Gregory said.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Finn spoke before I could. He was sitting beside Titus with his arms crossed, and he rolled his shoulders as he added, “Trust me, I know her better than anyone else here. She’ll shut down if you don’t give her a choice.”

I looked at him—really looked at him—for the first time in a long time, and I couldn’t breathe.

Ten years.

He’d had ten years with her. Time that he spent with her every day, watching her, being with her, and protecting her when the rest of us didn’t even know.

He was in love with her.

A weight pressed against my chest.

No.

Gregory studied Finn. “We will reevaluate this topic after she wakes.” He looked at Julian. “It’s time to go. Stand up.”

Julian quickly stood, holding Bianca against him like he was afraid she’d float away.

She was so silent and still. Barely alive.

I followed, slower, and clenched my fists in my pockets.

I should have stopped her from going.

I should have followed her anyway.

I should have…

I shook my head, snapping myself out of it. There would be no more ‘should have’s. This would never happen again.