Chapter 283. Trial I

Chapter 283: 283. Trial I

Maisie

The days blurred together in a painful haze of pain and cold.

So cold.

My teeth knocked together hard enough to hurt. I curled tighter beneath the blankets, but it did nothing. The cold had gotten into my bones.

"Maisie." A hand pressed against my forehead and I flinched away. Quinlan’s voice was tight with worry. "Goddess, she’s burning."

Burning? No. I was certainly freezing to death. My eyes must have slipped shut, because they opened again to the weight of blankets dropping on me. I moaned, shivering as my knees pulled toward my chest, but pain speared through me so sharply I cried out.

Hands wrapped around me immediately. "Easy, Adams," Soren murmured.

"Hurts," I moaned.

"I know," he replied softly, his voice fading as I drifted once again.

Something wet touched my forehead, and my eyes fluttered open to a darkened room. I hissed as a cold rag rubbed over my skin. "No. Cold."

"I know. Just for a second." Quinlan’s deep voice was a low rumble.

"Piss off," I croaked.

He didn’t piss off. The cold cloth returned. I whimpered and turned my face away from it, blindly searching for warmth until my cheek hit skin.

A chest. Bare. Hot. I moaned, pressing closer without thinking. Arms that smelled a little like ink closed around me securely. Jericho. He’d probably been working again.

"There you go," he murmured.

My fingers curled weakly against him. The heartbeat beneath my ear was steady and strong, and I listened, letting it anchor me as my entire body shook.

"Stay," I said.

"I’m staying," Jericho promised, his fingers gently scratching my scalp.

"Don’t m-move."

"I won’t."

The room drifted. Or maybe it was me.

There was a clink and cold metal touched my lips. A spoon. Something smelled good, but my stomach roiled with nausea. I turned my face away, burying it deeper into Jericho’s chest.

"You have to eat something," Soren said from my other side.

"Don’t wanna," I slurred.

"You haven’t had a bite in two days." I didn’t respond. I was so sleepy. Soren sighed dramatically. "I suppose Quinn and I will just have to eat all of the chocolate cakes Corazon made you alone."

My eyes opened instantly. The sunlight stabbed straight through my skull, and I winced. "Chocolate...?"

A spoonful of soup was expertly shoved into my mouth, and Soren’s violet eyes crinkled with mirth. "Works every time," he laughed.

I began sobbing ugly. "All you ever do is lie to me, you... beautiful, stupid man."

His lips twitched, and he nodded. "I am beautiful, aren’t I?"

Another spoonful brushed my lips, and I swallowed weakly. "I don’t..." Soren gently wiped a drop of broth off the corner of my mouth. "Don’t wanna be your wife anymore. D-don’t like you anymore."

"That’s okay, Adams," Soren said, entirely unfazed. "There’s plenty enough time to make you obsessed with me again."

I swallowed twice, and my stomach rebelled. I barely let out a sound of warning before my dinner came back up, and I hurled all over him. ℴℴ𝘮

My eyes watered. Quinlan materialized with a bucket just in time for the second wave. Jericho’s large hands gently gathered my hair back from my sweaty neck, and Soren, ignoring his own ruined shirt, rubbed soothing circles into my back as I heaved and heaved until nothing was left. It felt like my chest was being pried open by a crowbar.

Tears ran down my cheeks. I couldn’t breathe properly. "I’m sorry."

"For what, cherie?" Quinlan’s voice was so soft I nearly missed it.

I didn’t know. Everything. Nothing. "I-I’m sorry."

"You have nothing to be sorry for," Quinlan whispered, pulling the bucket away.

My clothes were wet. Sweat and puke stuck them to my skin. I was weak and exhausted, and my eyes wouldn’t stop leaking.

"I’m disgusting," I said as Soren began undoing the buttons of my soiled shirt, completely unbothered by his own skin riddled with vomit.

"No, malyshka. You’re sick," Jericho answered, bringing the cold cloth back to wipe the sweat and tears gently from my face.

My chest rose and fell too fast as Soren shed the ruined clothes from my body. "I’m ugly," I sobbed.

"Never, May," Soren answered. "Your beauty rivals the Goddess’s. I’m certain she doesn’t even come close."

"Liar," I hiccuped. After a moment, and insecure, tiny whisper slipped out of me. "I’m useless."

All three of them stiffened like they knew exactly what I truly meant. My nails curled into my palms. I hated myself, hated everything. There were days in those months I’d been alone that I considered... dying. And yet, I would despise myself for even thinking it. Lyon didn’t die for nothing. I had to make sure of that.

But there were days I fell so deeply into it, it consumed me. Like tonight.

Quinlan moved closer, his hands brushing my tangled hair from my cheeks. "We’re here." His blue eyes sought mine, touching the very source of my darkest thoughts. "Until it gets easier to breathe. Until the light returns to your eyes. Until the nightmares recede and new dreams take root. Until we can take it all away."

I couldn’t stand looking into any of their gazes. I didn’t know how anyone could look at the mess I was and still see someone who meant something.

I tried to look away, but Quinlan cupped my cheeks firmly. Jericho’s hand settled heavily, warmly over my knee beneath the blankets, and Soren shifted closer, his unyielding presence a shield at my back.

"We should’ve protected you," Quinlan continued, his voice thick with emotion. "We should’ve fought harder to get to you. We failed you, and that is no fault of yours."

I bit back a shuddering sob, shaking my head, but Quinlan caught my tears on his fingertips.

"We will shield you. Use us as your brace, your blade, your punching bag, for however long it takes you, but we will see to it that you heal from this and find some peace. Because you deserve better," he vowed. "You deserve the world. And we’ll spend the rest of our lives laying it at your feet and giving everything we are."

Like the spillway of a dam breaking, a ragged, broken cry unleashed from deep inside me. I tipped forward, my chin dropping into Quinlan’s neck.

His waiting arms wrapped around me tight, his fingers threading into my hair while Jericho and Soren pressed in close, anchoring me in the dark as I wailed, loud as a newborn, emptying out whatever was left of the ache inside me.

I lost a frightening amount of time after that.