What the hell happened? Panic tried sinking greasy claws into his stomach but he knew allowing that wouldn’t help her.
The back of his head pulsed in pressure-filled thumps that beat in sync with his still racing heart. He recognized the treasure room they’d discovered in the tunnels beneath Tintagel castle, but more torches blazed on the wall than he remembered. The ground felt cool beneath him, his skin still so hot his whole body felt flushed.
They hadn’t been here moments ago. They’d been somewhere else, somewhere… Details bled together in his mind—the taste of Briana’s lips, the smell of wildflowers on her skin, the tightening of her arms around him.
And then he’d made her do the last thing he wanted—leave.
“Briana?”
Willing her to open her eyes, Lucan sat up. Nausea jackknifed through his midsection, nearly doubling him over.
Son of a bitch.
He sucked in a sharp breath, then another.
“Briana.” He reached for her hand, cursing at the glacial chill that snapped through him as his fingers wrapped around hers.
“Finally.”
It would have taken a hell of a lot more than nausea to stop him from rolling to his feet at the sound of the voice.
He planted himself between Briana and Nessa, his sword drawn. His vision swam at the edges and he could swear the ground felt ready to slide out from beneath him, but he remained on his feet. The left side of his jaw throbbed, but the twisting inside his chest felt worse.
Briana still hadn’t moved.
She’d been fine moments ago. Laughing and smiling and teasing him. And then she’d kissed him. Melted into him, her body fitting perfectly against his, like she’d been made for him.
She should be there now, not lying there so still she could have been…
The wraith grappled for control, fighting toward full consciousness, prepared to lunge for the huntress. Someone needed to suffer for what happened to Briana.
Nessa held up both hands. “I’m not going to hurt her.”
A ripped shirt and scorch marks that revealed bubbled pink flesh on the huntress’s thigh told him that she’d definitely been trying to hurt someone. Maybe it hadn’t been Briana this time, but he wasn’t inclined to trust her.
“How long?” He wanted to kneel next to Briana and do more than be sure she was still breathing, but didn’t take his eyes off Nessa.
“You two were frozen in some kind of weird tableau. I don’t long how long you were like that. I was starting to think you were going to be permanent candidates for a wax museum. What happened?”
He shook his head, not altogether sure of that himself. He remembered hearing someone coming down the tunnel and grabbing Briana’s hand and then they’d been somewhere else.
They’d been home.
“I tried snapping her out of it,” Nessa continued, keeping a safe distance between them, “but nothing worked.”
He glanced at Briana’s swollen mouth. “You hit her?”
“Don’t get your shadow tied up in knots, Peter Pan. I hit you too.”
Was that supposed to make him better? Jesus. “I thought we were frozen.”
She nodded and finally lowered her hands. “You were until a minute ago. Then you both dropped faster than an enchantress’s panties. You woke up before I could decide what to do next.”
Keeping an eye on the huntress, he edged closer to Briana.
Nessa took a step toward him, her fingers inching ever so slowly toward the twin blades strapped to her upper thighs. “Wait. How do I know you didn’t do something to her?”
The wraith snapped and clawed at the accusation, but he kept himself from attacking her. “I promised Tristan I would keep Briana safe.”
The huntress cocked her head. “You should know better than anyone about making promises you can’t keep.”
“Luc?”
Keeping the huntress in his peripheral vision, he dropped to the ground next to Briana.
Confusion clouded her eyes, her gaze darting around the hidden chamber. “How did we get here? I went to your tent…” She tried to sit up.
“Slowly,” he advised, slipping an arm around her back.
She settled into his embrace, the rightness of her there a cruel reminder of everything he’d lost. He’d have to let her go, but with memories of her lost in the moment, her body arching so sweetly into him, he couldn’t pull away. Not yet.
The decision was ripped from his hands as Briana frowned and her eyes snapped to his. The longest moment of his life passed, and he knew that she’d relived the same memory—the very same one that was a still a living, breathing brand on his mind.
Ours. The wraith quieted, but the instinctual claim was anything but.
She stiffened in his arms, leaning away from him. “I’m fine.”
“B?” Nessa looked primed to make a move.
If the huntress thought to separate them, he’d happily show her how easily he could separate her from her weapons. Without them there was no wounding him, no evening the odds in a competition that was nothing more than a good time for bored gods. Nessa might be just as determined to win the games, but she really needed to stop looking like she was all too happy to bury a blade in his back.
Briana pushed to her feet, and doubled over.
On instinct he reached for her, but the blue depths of her eyes turned to ice. “It’ll pass in a couple of minutes,” he offered.
Which was more than he could say about the memory continuing to replay in the back of his mind. He kept waiting to forget the smell of her hair or the contagious sound of her laughter.
She staggered upright, but when he stepped in to steady her, she avoided him.
“She needs a minute,” Nessa said quietly.
He hadn’t realized he’d moved toward Briana again until the huntress’s words stopped him. He knew he should stay away from her, but couldn’t make himself walk away from the choking waves of disappointment and anger that radiated from Briana.
She was hurting and it was his fault. God damn it, he’d warned her that night in the meadow. He knew he hadn’t deserved her, and instead of doing the right thing, he’d been selfish. And she’d paid the price.
He turned around to find Nessa had left them. He stared at the opening in the wall, willing himself to take a step toward it.
“I waited.”
A cold fist gripped his stomach. He glanced over his shoulder.
“That night, outside your tent,” Briana clarified. She took two steps toward him, her anger reminding him that she was as much a predator as he was. “I waited. I kept thinking there was no way you wanted to spend the night with her. No way you could be so amazing with me and then make me leave to be with someone else. I knew you felt what was between us.” She laughed, the sound strained. “I had myself convinced of that, so I waited. Even when it started to pour, I didn’t move.”
He hadn’t known.
“And I was right.” Her smile bordered on bitter. “She didn’t stay, but you didn’t come looking for me either. You never came for me.”
It took two tries to get the words out. “It was a long time ago.”
“Really? Because it feels like just moments ago to me. Except this time I know better than to wait for you.”
“Briana!”
“Stay away from me, Lucan.” She turned away, but he didn’t miss the glossy shine in her eyes she masked with a murderous glare.
Walking in the other direction was almost as hard as sending her from his tent, and left him fighting both his desire and the wraith the whole way.
Briana leaned against the wall of the tunnel. She’d underestimated the continued effect Lucan would have on her. One minute her body felt utterly quiet, the cat content to be alone, and the next his touch unleashed a vicious hurricane inside her.