Chapter 104

When my eyes flutter open, I stretch myself a little, feeling bright and refreshed.

“All better, baby?” I hear my mom murmur and I go still for a moment before I focus on her face leaning over me.

A smile breaks out on my lips, because it’s my mom – my mom, the best mom in the whole world, who I love so much, who I’ve been dying to see for weeks –

But then I gasp, and sight up straight, with my entire reality flashing back to me in a moment – why I haven’t seen my mom for months, the Academy, the Examination –

“Slowly now, slowly,” mom murmurs, putting her hands on my shoulders and pushing me gently back towards my pillows. “You’re fixed, baby, but you’re still dehydrated and exhausted. Go easy.”

But I resist, not wanting to lay down – only wanting my mom, to be in her arms. “Mama,” I cry, tears springing to my eyes, and she relents, wrapping her arms around me and gathering me to her. She holds me close, shushing me quietly and rocking me back and forth like she has a thousand times, telling me how much she loves me and how precious I am to her. And those words – god, they heal me more than any magic she has.

I mean, that’s an overstatement. But it certainly feels like it.

“Thanks, mom,” I say, my words hitching a little in my voice. “Thank you so much. I was so scared.”

“You were scared,” she says, pulling back a little and looking at me with wide eyes, “Ari, you just laid there – I was the one who was scared. I’m going to kill you for this!”

I can’t help it – I burst out laughing, a rough and shaky sound as I lift my hands and brush my tears from my cheeks. “What a waste of magic, mom,” I murmur, shaking my head, “if you heal me just to kill me.”

My mom just moans then, shaking her head at me and gathering me into her arms again. I cringe, hating that I made her so upset, but there’s a bright side in that too, right? Because if she’s mad at me, that means I’m okay. If I was dying, mom would go much easier on me.

“I’m sorry, mom,” I whisper. “I’ll tell you everything – I promise.”

“Damn right you will,” she murmurs back, tightening her arms. “What were you and your brother thinking taking you off to that dangerous school – you’re so little, Ariel! Why did you think you could –“

“Um,”

I start a little at the manly voice that sounds somewhere to my left, sitting up straight and looking around. And my eyes go wide when I see Rafe and Jackson just…standing there, staring at us.

How – how long have they been there?

“Yeah,” Rafe says, glancing anxiously at Jackson, “I think…I think you need to let this one see that you’re okay? Or else he might have a stroke.”

Another little sob breaks from my throat as I open my arms to my mate, calling to him in my mind, and instantly he’s across the floor – so fast I didn’t even see him move – gathering me into his arms and taking shaky breaths as he runs a hand over my hair, and takes a deep sniff of my scent. As Rafe comes to stand closer by the bed, Jackson does his best to look me over all while keeping me as close as he can, which kind of defeats the point.

“You’re – you’re seriously okay?” he asks, his voice trembling. “How…”

“I’m fine,” I say, nodding my head eagerly to him, “mom patched me up, Jacks, it’s okay –“

He screws up his face in confusion, glancing between me and mom, not getting it. “So, you’re like…you are going into surgery soon? She stopped the bleeding? What about the infection – you need –“

“No,” I murmur, taking his face between my palms and shaking my head, making him listen to me. “Jacks, I’m healed – that’s her gift. It’s pretty incredible.” When he still stares at me, not getting it, I grin and lean back a little in his arms, pulling up my shirt so he can see my stomach, which looks exactly as it did before Wright plunged a crossbow bolt through it – smooth skin, no scar, no wound. Nothing.

“See?” I say as his eyes go wide. “Like it never happened.”

“What…” he breathes, sitting up straight, his arms loosening around me in a way I can’t stand. “How…”

“Well,” mom says dryly, “I think that’s enough bared flesh for one evening. ” She swats gently at my hand and makes me drop my shirt. I laugh, grinning at her, and then glance at my mate, feeling suddenly awkward to be in his arms like this. I mean, he’s here…did they like…meet?

Does she know who he is to me?

And, oh my god, has Luca shown up? Did he even finish the Examination? Does he even know that I’m here, that I was hurt? I glance anxiously towards the door.

“All right, young man,” my mom says, sterner than she usually is, leaning forward to deliver a little rap to Jackson’s arm. “You’ve verified that she’s alive and well – now hands off my daughter at least until we’ve been properly introduced.”

Jackson blushes terribly and goes rigid before letting me go, sitting up straight. I grin at him because, I mean, I know that mom is teasing him – but knowing how Jackson is around women?

And especially a Queen?

Oh, my poor baby mate.

“Well?” mom says, sitting up imperiously and holding out a hand to him, palm down with her fingers delicately pressed together. “Will you not kiss my hand and perform the proper obeisances to your Queen, Cadet?”

Jackson just stares at her hand, wide-eyed, having absolutely no idea what to do and in a complete panic about it. I let it all happen for about two seconds, glancing between them and taking in Jackson’s slack jaw, the twitch at the edges of my mom’s lips, before I burst out laughing and smack her hand away.

“Mom, leave him alone!” I order, and she grins, dropping her hand. “You’re scaring the crap out of him.”

Rafe laughs too, enjoying the scene as I murmur to Jackson that she’s just teasing him – that there are no Queenly obeisances due.

“Yeah well,” my mom says, crossing her arms and sighing with pleasure as she looks over me and then Rafe, her first two babies who she loves so, so much. “Your boy here scared the crap out of me, so I thought I’d return the favor.”

“He’s delicate mom,” I murmur, pressing myself warm against Jackson’s side, sensing that he needs it. “He’s –“

“Delicate!?” Rafe questions, his voice full of doubt, but I ignore him, continuing on.

“He’s not used to women’s tricks and pranks. And he’s had a hard night, dragging my bleeding butt all over the countryside. Be nice.”

My mom just sighs, still grinning, as she smiles warmly at Jackson. “I owe you a life debt, boy, for bringing my daughter back to me. I’ll never be able to repay it.”

She leans forward, offering her hand in a normal way. Jackson, sensing that it’s real this time, reaches forward to take it, wrapping his large hand around her small one.

“You’re my family now,” mom whispers, holding his blue gaze, her voice serious and sweet, “nothing will ever change that. Yes?”

My heart swells as I look up at Jackson, because even though mom has no real way of knowing it, I think she’s given Jackson the thing he’s always needed and never knew to want – a family, a mother to care for him. And I know her – I know that she means every word of it. That beyond being my mate – what Jackson did for me today? He’ll always, always have a place in her heart.

“Thank you,” Jackson says, his voice quiet and very reverent. And I grin when I realize that Jackson, like the rest of us, has been caught up in mom’s spell.

How couldn’t he be, though? Mom is the best.

“All right,” Rafe says, his voice dry and a little bored, “this is a lot of love, but you two are both covered in blood and you smell terrible –“

“We do not,” I protest, turning my face up to stare at him.

“Well, he does,” Rafe says, pointing at Jacks in a way that makes me squeak in objection. But my brother just grins at me, a little wicked. “Listen, you just got carried across the countryside, you didn’t have to break a sweat –“

I protest with a louder squeak this time, objecting to the idea that any of that was easy for me.

“But he,” Rafe continues, pointing at my mate with more vehemence, “did all the work. So would you please unwind yourself from him for half an hour so he can get cleaned up? Because dad’s here, and he’s going to want to meet him, and your mate is gross –“

“Dad’s here?” I ask my eyes going wide.