Free Midnight Soul by Kristen Ashley Page B

he said as we moved down the hall.
    I shifted my gaze over his shoulder toward
the door, hearing Frey demand on an enraged bellow, “Talk, Nils. Now !”
    But that was all I heard as Noc quickly
carried me down the passageway.
    “This isn’t good,” I whispered.
    “It’s gonna be fine,” Noc assured.
    I closed my eyes tight. “You don’t know.”
    “What on…?”
    This was a female voice, and I opened my eyes
and turned my head to see the green witch rushing toward us.
    “Frey needs you,” Noc grunted, not pausing a
step, meaning Valentine needed to jump to the side as he forged
right ahead, passing her. “Room at the back,” he finished.
    I turned my attention over his shoulder and
watched Valentine disappear in a tall, thin spiral of green
smoke.
    Noc kept moving.
    I took in a deep breath, closed my eyes
again, and for the second time that night, the second time in
decades, I used my power, opened my senses and sought my
brother.
    I was out of practice and in immense pain. I
couldn’t sense him.
    Either that or she’d already broken him. With
Kristian, it never took long.
    “I can’t sense him,” I told Noc, still trying
to do so and feeling us ascending stairs.
    “Franka, just focus on you, yeah?”
    “This could mean she might have already
broken him.”
    “Frey and Valentine have this.”
    I opened my eyes only to narrow them at him.
“What do those words even mean ?”
    Noc blinked as he kept climbing stairs, and
when he was done with his blink, his lips quirked.
    “There’s my sugarlips,” he muttered.
    I didn’t have it in me to cut him with a
reply. The pain jarred through my conscious and I felt bile drive
up my throat.
    I swallowed it down but whispered a
horrified, “I may be sick.”
    “Please, fuck, wait ten seconds until I have
you in my bed,” Noc begged.
    “I’ll try,” I promised, and fortunately,
after what felt a great deal longer than ten seconds, I was able to
keep that promise.
    I bit back a moan as he carefully extricated
his shirt from me and gnashed my teeth silently as he rolled me to
my belly. Once he’d positioned me, I felt the covers being pulled
up over my bottom.
    I then watched as he reached to the cord
beside the bed and tugged on it.
    “How did you know to come to the buttery?” I
asked.
    He looked down at me. “Your girl. She woke me
up, totally freaked.”
    I felt my brow furrow. “Freaked?”
    “Panicked,” he explained. “Worried about
you.”
    “How did she know?” I asked.
    “I don’t know, babe. She woke me, she was
freaked way the fuck out, said you were in danger. I didn’t take
time to interrogate her. I put some clothes on and hauled ass.”
    I decided to leave that alone. I’d speak with
Josette about how she knew later, after I was assured Frey and the
green witch “had this.”
    Therefore, I changed the subject as I watched
Noc stride purposefully across the room. “Why did you pull the
cord?”
    He disappeared through his dressing room door
but still called out, “Gonna need clean towels. And more water. And
one of those sleeping drinks you talked about. And a bunch a’ other
shit, this place has it.”
    Being slightly twisted to observe the door to
the dressing room was causing too much pain, so I rested my cheek
on my arms crossed under me and demanded loudly so he could hear
(meaning indecorously, which I found irritating), “You need to go
back to Frey. Ascertain he has things in hand.”
    Noc came back wearing another shirt, this one
odd, seeming to be one piece of material, no buttons, long sleeves,
the fabric looking soft and fitting snug at his chest and
shoulders.
    He was also carrying a drying cloth that
looked wet but wrung.
    “Your cousin’s got dragons on call, Frannie,
I think he’s good,” he denied my demand.
    “I—” I began just as he stopped by the
bed.
    “Please be quiet, baby,” he said in a
soothing tone. “Try to relax. I’m gonna lay this on your back,
maybe the cool will give you some