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Chapter 254: Guardians, My Ass

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ELIA – Human World

Gahrye had had to physically lift her and carry her—still fighting—upstairs to the suite of rooms Shaw had directed them to use. Then he\'d dumped her unceremoniously on the floor and gotten in her face. "You cannot attack the Guardians!"

Elia had stopped fighting, but glared at him, her shoulders rising and falling with her panting breath. "He helped the wolves. He put me there. He doesn\'t—"

"Would you change it, Elia? If you\'d known, would you change it, knowing what you know now? Never come to us?"

"Of course not!"

"Then you cannot be angry at that man for helping it happen!"

Her eyes went wide and she stepped right up into his chest her chin thrust out. "That man," she spat, pointing towards the stairs outside the door, "saw the wolves bring an unconscious, human woman into this house—completely unconscious. Kidnapped!—and take her to another world. I will always fight any man that thinks it\'s okay to do that. Do you think it\'s okay to do that to a woman, Gahrye? Or a man for that matter? Do you think the humans should start coming to Anima and taking us against our will?"

"Of course not," he huffed.

"Then do not chastise me for wanting to wring his neck!" she snarled.

They stared at each other for a second, then she turned on her heel and began pacing the room, shivering, and shaking out her hands.

Her body hummed. It was as if a spring inside her had been twisted tighter and tighter and now it quivered waiting for release. She needed to calm down. But her head spun. Reth was in Anima, wounded and under attack, with only Behryn at his back.

Or was he? How much time had passed since he\'d thrown her into the Traverse? Was… was he already dead and she didn\'t even know?

Elia stopped pacing and pressed a hand to the center of her chest where her heart suddenly ached.

She would know, wouldn\'t she? Mated, claimed, and offered… surely she\'d know if… if Reth wasn\'t… Wouldn\'t she know?

Her face crumpled. But her back was to Gahrye. He didn\'t know the dark turn her thoughts had taken.

"At least he seemed good-natured about you attacking him," Gahrye muttered. It took her a second to remember that he was talking about Shaw.

She blinked and made herself remember. The strange little man had just stared at her while Gahrye grappled with her as she tried to reach him, to use some of the training Reth had given her to pummel this little shit to the floor.

"Oh dear, she has learned to be quite aggressive, hasn\'t she?" he said, and he\'d smiled.

Gahrye had muttered something non-committal, but she\'d been single-minded.

"Can you just… tell me where I can take her to calm down?" he\'d asked Shaw through his teeth, as she scratched at his forearms, clawing to get loose.

It was embarrassing how effortlessly he held her. She would have bet money the human male couldn\'t take her so easily. When Shaw gave the directions—out into the hall, up the wide stairs, then down the hall to the right, and the third door down—Gahrye had lifted her bodily and the rage that erupted in her had stolen her breath.

She\'d almost clawed at his eyes. And that scared her.

She\'d never felt such a yearning for violence in her life. Was this because she\'d come back here? Was this all part of the human response to leaving Anima? Was she losing her mind already?

That thought stopped her cold. She turned, staring at him.

"What is it?" Gahrye asked, chin down and body tight, like prey that had just scented a wolf.

"Nothing," she breathed, swallowing and rubbing at her arms where the hair was standing up. "I\'m just… I don\'t know what to be worried about the most," she said breathlessly. "I\'m not… I don\'t know how to do this, Gahrye. I\'m afraid I\'m going to lose my mind, and I won\'t even know that it\'s happening."

Gahrye\'s throat bobbed. "I think with everything that\'s happened it\'s normal you\'d be a little… off."

They stared at each other for a breathless moment. "You have to promise me, Gahrye," she said quietly.

"Anything."

"You have to promise me you\'ll tell me if I\'m… if I start to go. And it if happens suddenly, you have to take me back. Even if it\'s risky. If I\'m going to die, I want to die there. Do not let me lose myself here. Even if—even if Reth is gone. Do not let me die here. Promise me," she said through clenched teeth. "Promise me, Gahrye."

"I vow it, Elia. I won\'t let you die here if it\'s under my control to stop it."

She nodded once. "Thank you. You\'re… you\'re too good to me," she said then turned away again.

Then she blinked.

She hadn\'t even looked at the room when they\'d come in here. But now she stopped and looked around. It was beautiful. And old. And it made her ache to be here with Reth.

The door had opened into a large sitting room with a fireplace that looked like it might be real, two thick chairs and a beautiful old couch centered on it. But beyond them… A massive bay-window that glowed with sunlight hugged a small, round table with a turned center pole, and four antique chairs. There was a door on either side of the room—one alongside the fireplace, the other behind her—that must lead to bedrooms.

Gahrye followed her line of sight and his jaw tightened. "I\'ll go get our bags from downstairs if you promise me that you won\'t leave this room, or go after Shaw."

Elia took a deep breath, but nodded. "I promise."

"Do you want food?"

"I want a shower more."

"What is a shower?"

Despite herself, Elia smiled. "Just… go get the bags. I\'ll show you when you get back. I think it\'s one of the human things you\'ll enjoy."

He gave her a flat, unimpressed look, but she just kept smiling until he turned, then let it fall. And as he disappeared out the door, she crept to check inside each of the doors.

The room beside the fireplace was a simple, functional bedroom with a massive bed and adjoining bathroom, but little furniture or fluff.

The one across the way was more… flowery. Vaulted ceilings overlooked a super-king, four-poster bed with a railing that obviously used to hold the curtain, but now just made a frame. There was carved wooden chest at its foot, large, old furniture—two chests of drawers, two chairs in corners—and another bathroom, though it seemed much more modern than the rest of the room.

It was beautiful and comfortable despite everything being sized for Anima males, and she suddenly, desperately, wished Reth was there to share it with her.

Swallowing against the emotion that welled into her throat, she walked straight to the bed and crawled up onto it, pulling one of the massive pillows down behind her back, and the other in front of her, so she was sandwiched between them.

She hugged the deep, down pillow, pretending the weight and presence at her back was her mate. Pretending that all these new smells didn\'t make her shaky. Pretending that there was no danger—to her, or Elreth, or Reth.

And as her eyelids dragged down she reassured herself.

She would know if he\'d died.

She would.