The shifter legion gaped at me.
Arabella stood beside Scorpius and stared at me with worry.
“Here,” Orion whispered, then pulled his hoodie over his shoulders so his golden abs were on display. He knelt at my feet and wrapped it gently around my waist.
Even in this state, mentally and physically destroyed, I swallowed thickly and had to look away from the sight of him offering himself before me.
A Revered was supposed to be taken care of.
But he took care of me. All the time.
Orion gently knotted the fabric around my waist and adjusted it so I was fully protected.
It was so wrong, but a part of me liked when Orion took care of me.
I liked that all three of us had one another’s backs.
I was a shitty Ignis.
“Really, are we sure we want to cover…” The future dead cunt named Sadie gestured with her hands toward my crotch. “All that?”
Had she not disrespected me enough? Had she no mercy?
Scorpius and Orion turned to her with a snarl.
Arabella dragged her hands over her face, then smacked Sadie on the shoulder. “Really?” she asked her with exasperation.
I didn’t like that she touched her.
I liked that she glared at her.
Good.
Hopefully Arabella would realize how much of a bitch she was. The memory of them fucking in the shower made my hands fist, and I focused on my breathing.
Before one of my mates could lose their cool and attack the woman for ogling me in my weakened state, Sadie’s mates pulled her behind them and blocked her view.
The shifter legion launched into a furtive, whispered argument that I was too drained to care about. One of them hissed, and knives were drawn.
Let them kill one another.
“Are you okay, big guy?” Orion mouthed as he touched my cheek gently. “That was terrifying.”
I nodded and tried to stand up straight so I would appear strong for him.
I doubled over and coughed out clouds of ashy smoke.
“We need to get him back to the room so we can take out the dagger safely,” Scorpius snarled and walked faster as he supported me.
A mess of curly blue hair came into my field of vision. “Uh, sorry about that.” Arabella rubbed her arms. “I panicked and knew that my daggers were made of ice and just thought, what the heck, might as well, and then before I knew it, I was—”
“Stop apologizing,” Scorpius snarled at her.
Arabella’s jaw clicked as it slammed together, and her shoulders slumped.
She nodded and turned away to go back to the shifters as we limped toward the academy.
A loud whimper echoed.
Must protect. Must keep her safe. She is mine.
We jostled to a stop, and I swallowed a moan of pain as my muscles cramped from the sudden movement. Orion lunged forward and grabbed me to keep me upright as my mate turned.
Scorpius’s voice was laced with venom. “Come with us. Now. Stop walking away.”
Arabella jogged and stumbled toward us. “Sorry,” she gasped. “I forgot.”
She stared up at me with wide dark-blue eyes.
She looked heinous, like a war prisoner who’d spent months being tortured for information.
The Legionnaire Games were tearing her to shreds.
An unfamiliar emotion made my throat close and my breath shake.
It hurt to look at her.
Protect her. Do better.
She studied me like she was looking into my soul, and I felt my face heat. Lately my blasted cheeks were constantly on fire.
I closed my eyes from embarrassment.
I tried to help support myself as Scorpius and Orion resumed dragging me toward the academy.
I reached my hand out to the side pathetically.
For long moments, I thought she wouldn’t take it, but icy fingers wrapped around my much larger hand.
Arabella’s skin was a sharp contrast to my clammy skin.
I wrapped my fingers tightly around hers.
She didn’t let go.
Memories of her resting against me in the shower flashed through my mind. Her lean, powerful body had completely relaxed as she closed her eyes and smiled while I soaped her hair.
Such a small interaction.
Fuck, the most I’d done was kiss along her jawline.
Yet it had felt more intense and potent than any fuck I’d had since I’d gotten to the academy.
By the time we finally made it back to the room, I was shaking. My skin was ice cold, but I convulsed with hot flashes.
It was too much.
When Arabella released my hand, I made a pathetic sound of distress.
Orion pulled out one of the bloody mattress pads from the competitions, and Scorpius laid me down gently onto the makeshift cot.
Orion, Scorpius, and Arabella paused above me. They looked at one another with wide eyes.
“Do it. Pull it out now,” I ordered.
Arabella nodded and looked down at me with determination as she leaned forward.
I swore. “Not you.” I gritted my teeth. “Scorpius.”
Her bruised eyes filled with hurt.
Scorpius nodded as he understood what I was saying and forcibly pulled her back. “Turn around,” he ordered her. “Don’t watch.”
Orion shoved a strip of leather between my teeth. It was indented from where Zenith had bitten down as we stitched him three days earlier.
I nodded up at Orion, who used his body to shield Arabella’s view.
Grateful that he also didn’t want Arabella to have to see this.
My mates and I had talked about it at night. None of us liked how she was being targeted in these games.
There was purposeful hazing and power dynamics—sometimes you had to use force to make your point—but what was happening to Arabella was cruel. Pointless.
For some reason, the gods had singled her out.
They were targeting her.
She was falling apart before our eyes, and we could do nothing to help.
It was infuriating.
And I wasn’t so conceited that I couldn’t see that Arabella had saved me by using her ice fae powers to stab me. That was why I didn’t want her removing the dagger. She didn’t need more guilt and pain heaped onto her already fragile state.
Not today. Not because of my weakness.
Scorpius nodded down at me. “Breathe in through your nose.”
I sucked in air.
My chest expanded.
He gripped the hilt of the dagger. “Now bite down.” In one smooth motion, he ripped the blade from my skin. Metal razed flesh.
My teeth cracked.
I bellowed into the leather strip, and my back arched off the ground as I planted my heels and screamed.
Scorpius pressed cloth over the wound to stop the bleeding, and the sensation was worse than getting stabbed in the first place.
I writhed in agony.
What type of power was in her dagger? It was not normal ice.
Arabella tried to turn around, but Orion stood strong with his thighs parted, and he blocked her view with his golden body.
Scorpius’s face contorted with concentration as he used his full strength to stem the bleeding. “I got you,” he promised.
I tried to nod.
Ice sizzled as it mixed with fire in my veins. I boiled alive.
Tears streamed down my face.
If it weren’t for my mates surrounding me, I wouldn’t have found the will to fight through the pain.
But they were there, so I bowed my back, planted my feet, and gritted through it.
I left broken pieces of my teeth on a leather strap.