Not without her.
“No,” Arawn gasped, as he collapsed at her side. Her eagle’s body had taken the impact, as if the beast had done its best to break Soraya’s fall. To save her, with its very last breath. “No,no-no-no,”Arawn breathed, as he stopped beside her.
And then she opened her eyes and looked at him.
And he let out a terrible, broken moan, a desperate sound he’d never heard from himself.
She was stillalive.
She was alive and he was going to save her, to pick her up and carry her back to Alaris. She wasn’t too broken, she wasn’t beyond?—
A howl split the night.
Arawn spun as Cyrra screeched behind him, and he turned...
Just in time to see an entire flock of shadow wolves land on the snow behind him.
He counted five,ten,in the span of a breath, as he had yesterday. The shadows rippled through them as they growled, and their wings tucked in tight, and in seconds, they were surrounded.
“Soraya.” Arawn ground out. “We’re going. I’m taking you back.”
He lifted her, but shescreamedat his touch. She screamed, and thrashed, as if he’d burned her.
And he realized, suddenly, as he pulled his hands away, afraid to cause her any more pain...
She was bleeding.
But it wasn’t red like it always was.
No, now it was a deep, oilyblack.
“No,” he breathed. “No, that’s impossible.”
It was the darkness around them, perhaps. It was the shadows, or...or something else,anythingelse.
The wolves closed in. Cyrra screeched, and charged at the ones closest to them, and Arawn knew he had seconds before she took flight. Before she left them both behind.
He turned back to Soraya, tried to lift her into his arms.
Black blood stained his hands.
She wasn’t a darksoul.
She wasn’t a monster, like them.
This was wrong,all wrong.
“It’s okay,” Arawn said through tears. “It’s going to be okay.”
Soraya moaned as he sent a wave of fire scorching towards the wolves behind her. They yelped, and skittered backwards in the snow, but it wouldn’t be enough.
Not alone.
Not without her.
“Go,”Soraya ground out.
Her voice...
