Divine Destiny: Serendipity Saga Book Two

Chapter Twenty-Six

Chapter Twenty-Six

I exploded from the blackness, breathing hard, my chest heaving painfully. Anton was screaming, cursing, and clutching my hands in his. The necklace was laying on the comforter between my crossed legs, looking innocent and lovely as any article of jewelry would.

The door to the room had been completely ripped from its hinges and lay against the carpeted floor. The unassuming hallway beyond was dark.

"Kyra," Anton begged. He sat in front of me on the bed, one hand shaking my shoulder, the other cupped beneath my face and filled with blood.

I could immediately tell when he realized I had come back to myself. I glanced up at him and he relaxed, his shoulders sagging and his cries ceasing. I gasped around the room for several moments, trying to orient myself once more. My chest ached at the few precious seconds I had gotten with Carson. It had been everything but not nearly enough. I didn't know what Valeria has done to his mind but he didn't seem to remember me and yet, knew me anyway.

"—kay?" Anton was saying. I shook myself, my head swimming with convoluted images of my surroundings.

"What?" I asked, gazing up at his fiery amber eyes. He peered down at me, his eyes rolling over the exposed curves of my body.

He took a deep breath and forced himself to look back up at me. "Are you okay?" he repeated, looking as though he were struggling to contain himself. He looked me over again, this time with concern instead of that predatory haze. He gently held my chin between his fingers, turning my face to either side.

"You don't look right," he finally said.

I forced a laugh but was disappointed to hear how fake it sounded. "Thanks," I said, dryly.

He shook his head, sending his short auburn hair spinning about his face. "When was the last time you ate?" he asked.

My stomach twisted painfully at his words. I must not have held off the grimace that twisted my face because he sagged as though that were answer enough. "You can't just not eat. Carson wouldn't be okay with that," he said, moving off of his spot on my bed and leaving the room for only a moment.

I lifted the amulet from the comforter, gazing into its tumultuous depths. I was still peering at it when Anton reappeared, a wine glass filled with a crimson liquid clutched in his hand.

He sat on the foot of the bed, holding the glass to me with one hand and gesturing toward the necklace with the other. I stared at it for a moment longer before pressing the chain into his palm and taking he glass.

The liquid within had obviously been thinned with something. Wine, I was sure. I took a tentative sip, the liquid tasting...off as it passed over my tongue. I grimaced.

Anton placed the amulet tenderly on my bedside table and glanced up at me, watching me carefully. He lifted his hand and gently wiped a stray droplet of the blood-wine mixture from my lower lip.

A twist in my gut had me lurching forward, hand pressed to my abdomen. It was a worse pain than it had been before, something violent and dark.

"Kyra? Kyra, what's wrong?" Anton asked, leaning to try to look at me. He pressed a hand to my back and staggered off the bed and onto his knees with a gasp. He struggled to breathe for several moments more before lurching to his feet and darting from the room.

I took long drags of breath around a nauseous agony that foiled through my body.

Anton came rushing back, a small trash can clutched in his hand. He held it in front of my, kneeling next to me.