Page 30 of Wrapped in Their Arms

A hand touched his shoulder.

Burn flung it off violently.

“Don’t,” he snarled, backing away from the bars, his fists trembling.“Don’ttell me to calm down.Don’ttell me to be reasonable.Youfeel it too—youknowshe’s in trouble.”

Bright swallowed.Hisface was pale.

“I know.Ido.Butwe can’t get to her.Notlike this.”

Burn shook his head fiercely.Hecouldn’t accept that.Herefusedto.

His hands curled into fists so tight his nails cut his palms.Thepain grounded him—barely.Hiswhole body shook, the tension too much to contain.

“She’s scared,” he whispered hoarsely.“She’shurting.Icanfeelit.”

“Yes,”Brightstarted.“But?—”

“But nothing!”Burnexploded, turning on his best friend with a guttural roar.“Don’tyou fucking understand?”

He slammed his fist into the wall so hard the bones in his hand sang with pain.

“Theytookher,” he snarled, the words torn from somewhere deep and raw inside him.“Theytook her—and they’ll take her apart if we don’t get to her.”

Bright’s eyes widened, worry replaced by fear.

“Burn, you have to calm down—you’re really going to hurt yourself,” he begged.

ButBurnwas past any kind of calm.Hischest constricted…his throat tightened until he could barely speak as the present merged with the past again.

“They took them,” he whispered.“Allof them.Andthey never came back.Don’tyou understand?Theynever came back.”

“Burn…”Brightsaid softly.“Please, if you’d just talk to me…”

ButBurndidn’t let him finish.

He pressed his forehead to the cold metal bars, breath shaking, vision swimming.Hisvoice was a ragged whisper.

“I can’t lose anyone else.”Hisfingers curled around the bars tightly enough to make the metal creak.“Ican’t,” he whispered.“Notagain.”

He squeezed his eyes shut.

Hold on,Noelle.Holdon.I’mcoming.Iswear to theGoddess—I’mcoming.

But the cell stayed locked.

And her terror kept bleeding into him like poison.

He had never felt more helpless in his entire life.

16

NOELLE

Noelle lay sprawled on the edge of theRejuvenationPool, gasping for air, her bare chest heaving.Everyinch of her body burned and tingled, as though she'd been scrubbed raw with acid and then rolled in hot sand.Theblack slime clung to her in patches—oozing down her thighs…stuck in the creases of her elbows…matting her hair to her scalp.Herbreath sawed in and out of her lungs as she struggled to make sense of what had just happened.

It used its suction cups on me…used themeverywhere.Thethought spun in her mind, fragmented and jagged.Ishould be dead.Ishould be drowned.Whatwas that thing?Whatthe hellwasthat thing?

She barely had time to think before she heard the hiss of pressurized air and felt a shock of icy spray hit her chest.