She’s Carina. She’s mine. I want her—allof her.
Abruptly, she yanks her mouth away. “Ryder?—”
Being distracted by Carina and our conversation, my hearing doesn’t pick up Xander’s approach until it’s too late. Until he charges into the clearing and rushes forward.
She jumps in my arms—a perfectly normal reaction…at first. Until she tenses, shuts her eyes, and?—
Power explodes, tendrils whipping out of her body and slamming both Xander and me backward. I’m thrown only a few feet and quickly stagger upright, but Xander gets tossed against a tree.
The area falls silent—other than the slithers of black tendrils returning to Carina’s body. She’s now down, dropped onto her knees and staring horrified at her hands. Shoulders rising up and down, it feels like a lifetime before she drags her head up.
Purple irises, but even darker than earlier.
“X-Xander, I’m sorry. I—Ryder—protect—I’m sorry.”
He glances at me, trying to piece everything together, except I don’t have those answers. He straightens from the tree, palm facing her in a calming motion. “It’s okay. I’m fine.”
Butsheisn’t, and right now, she’s where all my focus is. Three long strides until I’m on her. “Carina?—”
Her hands dart up, sending a visible wall of water between us. Thick enough she’s distorted but not so much to hide her tortured expression seconds before she crouches forward. Hands in her hair, she screams into the ground.
“Carina!” Fists slam into the water and Xander appears beside me.
Even her scream is muted behind her thick barrier. I slam my shoulder into it, my claws through it, but nothing changes. It’s a moment frozen in time by terrors I never want to live again: Carina hiding from me.
“Carina!”
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” It comes through as clear as if she were sitting beside me. Her head shakes into the ground. “Make it stop.”
“Make what stop?” My knees land on the ground, palms against the barrier. “Kamahki, help me out here.”
“The voice. Make it stop. I’ll hurt you. I’ve already hurt you both. You and Xander and Conan’s dead and what’s to say Leah is safe from me? I need to go home.”
“I’ll take you home. Drop the barrier.”
Hands clench her head as she lifts onto her knees, but her face remains averted. She rocks back and forth, mumblingthings beyond my hearing, crying her fucking soul out while I’m unable to hold her, to help her.
“Home,” she mumbles. “Home. Home. I need to go home. Home. Home.”
And then?—
“Ho—”
She disappears into thin air, and the barrier drops into a hard splash, drenching me and the area.
“Carina!”
Her scent, her emotions…her.
Gone.
Sixty-Two
CARINA
“Home.Home. Home. I need to go home. Home. Home.”
I hurt him. Him and his beta. I hurt people again.
