Pure bliss engulfed me, but it was short lived. The Commander pulled out of me, panting and baring his teeth. He dropped to his knees, fisting his hair and screaming as shadows tore through him.
Thirty-Nine
Veilstrider
Something was wrong.
The Commander screamed. His agony tore through me like a heated knife tearing open my skin. It shredded every single piece of calm in me.
I jumped off the bed, rushing to where he knelt on the floor. The sun had dipped behind the horizon, casting the room into darkness that the Commander was bleeding into.
“Stay away!” he roared, flinching away from me as ifIwere the danger. But I couldn’t. I couldn’t leave him like that. His canines flashed in a vicious snarl as I knelt next to him.
A show meant to scare me, but it didn’t work. A shadow lashed out and coiled around my hand, sinking in with brutal, icy agony. I choked on a gasp but splayed my hand against his chest anyway.
“What is happening?” I managed, voice cracking. I needed an answer. I needed him to look at me.
His shadows burned like ice as they tore at my skin, but I forced my wrist towards his mouth anyway. It was the only thing I could think to do, the only thing I had to offer.
If my blood could anchor him and soothe the darkness, I would give it. All of it, if I had to.
A guttural sound ripped from his chest, half-beast, half-man as he struggled with control.
He squeezed his eyes shut before his canines pierced my skin and cold agony dug into every nerve as his darkness crawled up my arm.
Warmth oozed through his bite as he drank from me. But his venom wasn’t enough, I bit down on a cry. He had endured this pain just to be near me. I could endure it too, for him, even if his darkness consumed me.
His suffering crept into me, it was like a hole inside his chest I somehow knew I could fill. I closed my eyes and imagined my pool of shimmering blue magic pouring towards it.
The bond ignited, flooding between us in a searing rush.
His panic slammed into me, raw and suffocating as hispaincoiled around my heart like a vice. My magic thrashed in response, filling the empty hole in his chest?—
His mouth ripped away from my wrist. “Stop,” he breathed, horror creeping into his voice.
I couldn’t stop. Not when his shadows were tearing holes through him. Not when the bond pulsed like a second heartbeat between us. Not when I could feel how much he needed me.
“It’s okay,” I whispered, though my voice shook.
His eyes widened, broken and beautiful as my power seeped into the gaping cracks in his soul. I felt it leaving me, my own soul weakening.
“No,” he rasped.
He tore himself away from me, breaking my touch. His shadows recoiled, slamming back into his body hard enough to send him flying. The connection snapped. My magiccame rushing back all at once, violently rejected, flooding my chest like a dam wall exploding. I pitched forward onto my hands, gasping down ragged breaths.
“Don’t ever do that again,” he wheezed as he rolled onto his side, voice raw and filled with terror.
I lifted my head and the room spun. “You needed?—”
“I neednothingworth losing you!” He yelled over me, hands fisting as if he were barely restraining himself. “Do you even know what you were doing?”
I shook my head, tears swimming in my eyes.
“Your magic was trying tofixme by sacrificing yourself.” He gathered me into his lap, arms wrapping around me with a gentleness that broke me. The Fire Fates words echoed through my head,“the destroyer, if she does not save her Fated Mate.”
I curled against him, fitting as if I were made for him. The room felt quiet. Heavy. The only sound disturbing the darkness was the uneven sounds of our breathing.
“I will not survive my darkness,” he whispered. “But you will.”
