MIRA CAME AWAKE ON A GASP, LIKE A FISH TOSSED OUT OF the ocean and onto dry land.
Shocked.
Confused.
Slapped into a sudden, harsh new reality.
She shot bolt upright in bed, breath heaving. Her heart was pounding fast and hard, as though it wanted to burst out of her breast.
She was back at the Order's headquarters, alone in a darkened bedroom. Nothing but silence all around her. She hardly noticed her surroundings, hardly cared how she'd gotten there or how long she'd been unconscious.
She vaguely remembered Nikolai trancing her after they'd left the GNC building. She couldn't blame him for putting her under a hypnotic sedation. She'd been inconsolable, hysterical with grief.
It all seemed like a nightmare - horrible and wrenching. But no, it had been real. She still had Kellan's blood on her clothes.
He had been shot.
Kellan was dead.
And yet . . .
She rubbed her chest, felt the steady beat of her heart, heavy and strong, beneath her palm. Her blood was thrumming in her veins. All of her senses honed on one pure point of awareness.
Kellan.
She felt him with every particle of her being.
She felt his pain, his struggle to cling to something that until now kept slipping out of his grasp.
Life.
She felt him reaching for it. She felt him fighting for each breath, forcing each heavy beat of his heart to push more blood into his veins. She felt his mind searching for her. Felt their bond reconnecting, giving him much-needed strength.
Oh, God . . .
Kellan was alive.
Mira swung her feet to the floor and stood up, just as Renata entered the room.
"Kellan?" Mira blurted, both a question and a prayer.
Renata smiled, relief written across her face. "Yes, Mouse. He's not out of the woods yet, but Tess and Rafe - "
Mira was too elated to let her finish. She let out a cry of disbelief and threw herself at Renata in a fierce, overjoyed hug. "I have to see him."
She raced through the mansion, following the thin tether of the blood bond she shared with him. It led her down the stairs to the main floor, then down again, to the underground wing of the headquarters' tech center and the double doors of the infirmary down the hallway.
Kellan lay in a hospital bed inside one of the half-dozen medical rooms. Tess and Rafe were with him. Nikolai, Dante, and Lucan stood off to one side of the bed. And Nathan was there, standing as rigid as a sentry on watch, flanked by his squad of warriors and Mira's too.
The teams she'd trained with, laughed with, rode into battle with, all gave her nods of greeting and support as she entered the room. As for Nathan, despite his carefully schooled posture, there was no mistaking the concern in his dark-fringed eyes as he pivoted his head and met Mira's gaze. He'd been worried about Kellan too.
Mira went to the side of the bed, not realizing she was holding her breath until she saw Kellan's chest rise and fall, and her own lungs expelled a ragged sigh.
She whispered his name, reaching down to smooth his coppery-brown hair off his pale brow.
"He's weak right now," Tess said gently. "He's lost a lot of blood."
"He's alive," Mira said. It was all the hope she needed. She kissed his mouth, tasted her own tears as she wrapped her arms around his bulky shoulders and let her relief pour out of her.