Ara's POV
The world came back in fragments. The scent of antiseptic, the rough texture of sheets beneath my fingers, and Aurelia's worried face hovering above me.
"Are you okay?" Her voice sounded distant, like she was speaking through water.
Then memory crashed over me like a tidal wave.
"Damon!" I bolted upright so fast my vision swam. "How is he?"
"I thought I would find my mate nursing me when I woke up." That voice, deep and rough with sleep, sent shivers down my spine. "Looks like it's the other way around."
I whirled toward the sound. And there he was, propped against the headboard, his bare chest crisscrossed with fading pink scars. The scars on his back where the arrows had pierced him just hours before was vanished too. The sight stole my breath.
"Damon!" I launched myse
