Andrew’s POV
I ran my fingers through Emma’s hair and took a deep breath. I kept doing that. I kept running my fingers through her hair and forcing air deep into my lungs. It was the only thing that kept me calm.
Her fever increased again and not even the meds were working. She was shivering and sweating. She looked so pale and tired and my heart kept breaking again and again.
Logan was a complete mess ever since her fever spiked. He was somewhat calm until then, but this just threw him off the edge. He couldn’t stop pacing around the room and growling. He kept walking back toward her and checking if the fever was gone.
We were both terrified because we didn’t know what the fuck was going on. Based on everything we knew so far, she was fighting. But why the fuck did her fever increase if she was on meds? How bad was it?
The protectiveness I felt over her only exploded after she transformed in front of my eyes. All I saw was my little girl. All I saw was the girl I raised.
I placed a kiss on her forehead and caressed her cheek.
“You can do it, Em,” I mumbled quietly. “I know you can. You are so brave and so strong. You can win. You will win.”
Logan approached the bed again and placed a hand on her forehead.
“Fuck!” he exclaimed angrily.
I sighed and kissed Emma’s forehead again. Wren was here about half an hour ago. He increased her meds, but it didn’t seem to help. He said that there wasn’t much he could do when the cause of her fever wasn’t physical. It was magic and he couldn’t do much.
Logan continued pacing around the room, mumbling and cursing quietly.
“I am so proud of you, my little girl,” I said quietly. “You are so strong and so brave. I will be here when you open your eyes. I am waiting for you to tell me that you got rid of those idiots forever.”
I took another deep breath and released it slowly. I was full-blown panicking on the inside, but I had to keep my cool on the outside. Maybe she could hear me and I didn’t want her to know how fucking scared I was.
What hurt the most was being helpless. There wasn’t anything I could do. I couldn’t go where she was and help her. My hands were tied and it was driving me insane.
I heard footsteps approaching the room and a few moments later Anna walked inside.
“Did you find something?!” Logan exclaimed as soon as he saw her.
“No,” Anna said, shaking her head. “I didn’t find anything.”
She looked at Emma and gulped.
“She is on her own,” Anna added quietly.
My heart tugged painfully. Logan cursed and groaned, burying his face into his hands.
“There has to be something,” I mumbled. “There has to be something we can do. This can’t be it. She can’t be doing this alone.”
Anna tightened her jaw and shook her head.
“This is it,” she said. “This is all we can do. We can’t help her fight this. We can just sit here and wait.”
Anna’s face was a mixture of anger, pain, and fear. She leaned against the wall and closed her eyes.
Logan laughed, making me look at him. He was pacing around, shaking his head, and laughing darkly.
“Are you fucking kidding me?!” he shouted. “Is this really how this whole fucking thing is going to end?! After everything we’ve been through, this is going to end with her in a fucking bed fighting some fucking imaginary ghosts?!”
He grabbed a lamp from his nightstand and threw it against the wall, shattering it to pieces.
“Logan!” I shouted, standing up abruptly. “Enough!”
I heard footsteps rushing toward the bedroom. Alex and Mason ran inside, growling loudly. Both of them looked ready to fight, but I could tell that they were afraid. They immediately looked at Emma as they entered the room.
“Dad?” Alex said, looking from Emma to the shattered lamp on the floor. “What the hell happened?”
Logan kept growling and pacing around, ignoring Alex’s question.
“Dad?!” Alex called him as he approached Emma.
He placed a hand on her forehead and cursed under his breath.
“I told him that there is nothing I can do,” Anna mumbled quietly. “I told him that Emma has to do this on her own.”
Mason ran his fingers through his hair, pulling on it and cursing. Alex tightened his jaw and looked at Emma.
“She can do it,” he said. “She is strong. She will win.”
I gave him a small smile and looked back at my little girl. Alex was right. If anyone could do it, it was her.
“What if she doesn’t?” Mason asked quietly. “Will this thing really kill her?”
I looked up at my son and saw him staring at Anna. He looked like he was going to cry. He loved Emma so much.
Anna sighed and shook her head.
“I don’t know,” she mumbled. “It looked like it was killing her when she took it from Sophia, but I don’t know.”
She looked back at Emma and gulped.
“It could go two ways,” she added. “Either it will kill her or it will take over her and she will be even more powerful than she was.”
My stomach twisted and I instinctively wrapped my arms around her. I was trying to protect her, but I knew that I couldn’t.
“Either this thing will kill her, or she will kill us,” Anna said after a few moments of silence.
I looked down at my sister and I felt tears gathering in my eyes. If this was just about me, I would gladly trade my life for hers. I would let her kill me if it meant that she would live.
But this wasn’t just about me. I had a mate. I had children. I had a family. I couldn’t let her kill my family.
She had to win. There wasn’t any other option. She had to win and destroy that thing forever.
