He fought against her hold, raising his hands to cup her cheeks. Gods, the way he was looking at her . . . It would be better to avert her gaze, to avoid those emerald eyes that locked on her with such burning passion, but she couldn’t bring herself to look away. Her pulse raced as he leaned closer, pressing his forehead against hers. She leaned into him, into his warmth that flooded her veins like the fire that brought waves of reassurance rolling through her, knowing it was always there when nothing else remained. To fill the cracks of her broken heart. To light up the dark recesses of her mind. An infinite star that burned within her chest, pulsing in time with the beat of her heart that strained to abandon all reason.
“I’mnotleaving you,” he repeated, voice strained, chest heaving. His thumb stroked across her cheek, and he closed his eyes, as if he couldn’t bring himself to look at her with each confession spilling from his lips. “I’d risk my life every bloody day if that’s what it took,” he breathed.
Their breath mingled in the tiny space between their lips. Adara swallowed, her own hands making their way around his neck and into his hair. She wanted to close the distance between them, press her lips to his to finally see what he tasted like before death could steal him from her. But she refrained, knowing emotions were fickle, reckless things. A jumbled mess between the adrenaline of fighting for their lives, the incessant need to feel his skin against hers, and the ever constant worry that everything she fell for was merely an illusion.
Dominic’s eyes blinked open slowly, locking onto her with such intensity her breath caught in her throat. His hands held her cheeks, forcing her to stay focused on him, as if he wanted to make sure she saw the raw emotion in his eyes—the undiluted terror of leaving her—and hear his words loud and clear. “There is nothing,nothing,in all the realms that could possibly be more valuable thanyou.”
She opened her mouth to protest, but she was at a loss for words, heart stuttering in her chest, swelling with a panoply of emotions she did not have time to sort through right now. “Fine,” she said. Giving a curt nod, she wrapped her arm around his waist and threw his arm over her shoulder to carry him on. “We go together.”
He slumped against her, and she didn’t know if it was from fatigue and injury or relief at her words.
They didn’t make it far before Dominic collapsed in a bloodied heap. Another sharp scream tore through the air, pained and raw, as if he had screamed for so long that he’d shredded his throat. As if he could barely speak, let alone cry for help, but he still did. Such a horrid sound coming from Dominic Nite made Adara’s heart jolt, her body shaking as she dropped to kneel by his side.
He lay on the ground, curled into himself, arms wrapped around his knees as he wept.
“Dominic?” Adara said, hands halting in the air next to him, uncertain what to do. Nothing was near to cause harm. In fact, those hideous creatures had retreated, disappearing into the night. She could see no threats. They were alone.
Another ear-splitting scream from his lips had her flinching and throwing her hands over her ears. In the dim glow of the moonlight, she saw bright crimson streaked all across Dominic’s back, atop those wretched scars. His clothes had been slashed to ribbons, his skin along with it, blood streaming down hisback, pooling on the sand. A crack sounded, and he jolted and screamed as another wound tore open. Her heart shattered at his screams, cracked and broken. To see him curled up on the ground, so small, so fragile, so innocent.
Adara threw herself between him and whatever phantom whip had been torturing him. She lay down next to him, curled herself around his bloodied backside. Dominic groaned. She grimaced, whispering an apology for causing him pain. What else could she do against a monster that couldn’t be seen? Another crack of a whip, but it did not hurt Adara as she had intended. Dominic cried out again. Her attempted protection did him no favors.
“It’s okay,” she whispered in his ear, where blood leaked down the side of his neck.
He only screamed again, his body tensing and jerking beneath some creature she couldn’t see.
She should leave him there. Nothing he said or did was ever real. Not even the words that stole the breath from her lungs, planting hope in her heart.There is nothing in all the realms that could possibly be more valuable than you.
Despite herself, Adara pulled him tighter, hoping the pressure of her body against his back would slow the bleeding. Wrapping her arms around his middle, her hand found his. She laced their fingers together, gently squeezing, pressing their scars together, reminding him that whatever he faced was all in his head. This place drove people insane. Now, she knew why.
It searches your soul for your deepest connections, your darkest regrets, your biggest fears, and brings them to life.
“It’s not real,” she murmured to him, remembering the harsh cruelty in Cal’s eyes that not even the Ruins could mask with the tender soul she knew. “It’s not real,” she repeated to herself, building a barricade around her heart before Dominic tore it completely to shreds.
But that didn’t stop her from lying with him, holding on as if she could hold all his broken parts together. “It’s okay,” she tried again, her voice breaking as Dominic’s body trembled violently against her own, strangled sobs escaping his lips. “I’m here, Dom. You’re not alone. It’s all right,” she said again, tears now threatening to spill. She couldn’t stand to see him like this.
What if even this was a ploy? To pull at her heartstrings with his pain. To prove that when it came down to life and death, she’d always choose to protect him, even if it meant putting herself in harm’s way.
He screamed through the pain, tears flowing down his pallid cheeks, leaving gleaming trails through the blood and grime caked on his face. Adara didn’t have the energy to fight the maelstrom of emotions battling within her. She cried with him. “It’s not real,” she repeated. “You have to fight it.” She hated that she could do nothing to help him. Hated that she could not protect him, that she could not alleviate his pain.
She repositioned herself to kneel on the sand, carefully maneuvering Dominic’s head to rest in her lap. His arms found their way around her waist and pulled her closer. His sobs were muffled as he buried his face against her. His tears dampened her pants. He held her tight, as if she were an anchor to reality.
Another cry ripped from his throat. His arms tightened around her middle. His skin shredded again, blood spurting from his back. Adara pressed a palm to the wound, her magic flaring to life now that those creatures had disappeared. With her rucksack gone and Dominic’s nowhere to be seen, they had no medical supplies. All Adara could do was use her fire to cauterize his wounds before he lost more blood.
Eyelids heavy, she blinked rapidly, trying to keep herself awake as fatigue began weighing on her. “Come back to me, Dom,” she murmured, tending to his wounds, rubbing soothing circles on his shoulder, fingers lacing through his hair, dampwith sweat and gritty with sand. A tear slid down her cheek. “You will not fight alone. It’s not real,” she said, praying he could hear her. “I’m real. Come back to me.”
As if some spell over him had broken, Dominic stiffened, his entire body taut against her. He canted his head, shuddering as he glanced around. But then his eyes, filled with despair, fell on her, and he relaxed. He blinked up at her slowly, as if wondering if she was another illusion. His lips moved, but no sound came out, like he was still deciding what to do, to say. “Is it over?” he finally croaked, voice raw from screaming.
She nodded, running a hand through his damp hair. “You’re safe.”
At the sound of her voice, Dominic melted into her touch, lowering his head again to rest on her thighs.
He did not remove his arms from around her. He didn’t lift his head. His weight remained on her. His fingers curled against the back of her tunic, with his arms tightening around her, as if he was afraid she’d abandon him. The corners of her lips tilted up. His hands had been stained with the blood of many, yet they held her with such tenderness. Something inside her took pride in being the one he could not resist.
No, she couldn’t think things like that. She would not open the floodgates to the tidal wave of emotions that threatened to wash her away, to douse the fire in her veins. She pictured Dominic crouching before her, telling her it would be a mercy to let the Ruins break her before he could. It was a comfort for the anger to pulse inside her once more. A comfort that she could still remember how heartless he was, that she could dredge up old memories to fuel the hatred she needed to feel for him.
The ground shuddered beneath them, a long, haunting wail filling the silence. Adara’s head whirled to the vast desert, but she saw nothing.
Dominic groaned, trying to push himself to his feet. “We . . . have to . . . go,” he panted.
