Chapter 220: The Touch of Ice
Natalie~
Griffin’s weight in my arms was heavy but bearable. He clung to me like a man hanging onto the last thread of sanity, his trembling fingers fisting the back of my dress. My heart ached for him—for the brokenness in his eyes, for the part of me that still remembered what it felt like to be unwanted and alone.
Fox stood beside me, his body flickering with heat as his flames hissed and popped in the moonlight. "We need to get him out of here," he said quietly, but there was steel in his voice.
I nodded. My pulse was a thundering drum. "I’ve got him."
In the blink of an eye, I reached out with my power and teleported. One second we were standing in front of that rotting house of ghosts and nightmares—and the next, we were back inside Zane’s estate. Safe. Home.
I eased Griffin onto the bed in the guest room he’d been crashing in, careful not to jolt his battered frame as I pulled the covers over him. His head lolled to the side, and I brushed the matted hair from his sweat-slicked forehead. "You’re safe now," I whispered, more to myself than to him.
He didn’t respond.
Fox lounged in the doorway, arms crossed, his fire-kissed eyes flickering with a mix of concern and calculation. "I hate this," he growled low. "Yeah, he didn’t deserve what happened to him—but something about this doesn’t sit right."
"I know," I whispered. The weight in my chest hadn’t let up since we found Griffin. "But he’s alive. He’s still him. That has to mean something."
It had to.
I exhaled shakily and stood, brushing off invisible dust. My fingers trembled as I brought them to my temples and closed my eyes.