“Echo? This is Leif, the fate weaver.”
I wonder if he starts all conversations that way. Having met Leif, I think there’s a strong chance that he does.
“Hi, Leif,” I rasp sleepily.
“Can you please tell Cam that she needs to answer her phone? She emailed me days ago, but I’ve tried calling and she’s not answering.” He pauses, muttering to himself, “Maybe she blocked me.”
I stifle a snort, ignoring the second part of what he said as I sense it wasn’t for my benefit. Why would she ignore him when he’s such a cheerful guy?
“Anything else you want to say other than you wanting me to play as your secretary?” I say, the tiredness and weight of the week making me snippy. “Sorry, what did you need?”
“Something strange came up, I was—”
A roar from inside the garden has me practically dropping the phone. I freeze, staring out into the darkness. Another roar sounds. It sounds like Finn, but…
“Echo, are you listening?” Leif snaps.
“Something’s happening here. I’m sorry, I have to go,” I tell him and hang up.
The same roar sounds again, and it’s different to the last time Finn was fighting against the soul-eaters. He sounds like he’s in pain.
I tumble out of bed and shove my legs into jeans as I sprint into the middle of the garden.
“Fuck.” Soren and Brogan are both running ahead of me, with Brogan bounding along in front in his hound form.
We reach Finn’s cave and I gasp at the sight of it. It’s a complete mess. There’s smashed furniture everywhere and debris spread all over the floor along with pools of blood.
“Get her out of here,” Brogan’s voice sounds in my head.
Soren turns to me. “You should get back, sunshine. It’s not safe here.”
And then I see them. While the last set of soul-eaters were like giant creepy spider things, these are towering humanoids in black robes. There are five of them surrounding Finn and stabbing at him with massive swords, their eyes black voids. Finn’s flesh is being carved up and there’s blood everywhere. I don’t know what they’ve done to him, but he’s lying motionless like he’s paralysed but still conscious. He roars again, and the sound is so filled with pain. My chest squeezes hard enough for my ribs to snap.
Brogan leaps for the throat of the nearest soul-eater, while Soren spins around, his scythe in his hand. He lops the head off the nearest creature and my breath catches at the sight. He’s like an avenging god of death. Merciless and lethal.
Finn roars again and my attention snaps to him. I dodge the fighting, not quite missing the blood spatter as Brogan rips the arm clean off one of the soul-eaters. Something warm, wet and stinking of copper hits my face and I nearly gag. It’s only thanks to my tunnel focus being entirely on Finn that I avoid puking all over his prone form. I drop heavily to my knees, ignoring the pain as they hit the hard stone floor.
Finn’s massive, black body has been gauged and there’s blood pooling over the floor. I’m kneeling in it and as I press my hands to his flesh, soon I’m covered. His body is rock hard and covered in scales and I wonder what the hell those blades are made of to cut through dragon scales so easily.
I stifle a sob as I run my hands over him. He’s bleeding so badly and I can see that his breathing is faster and more shallow than it should be. Finn’s eyes open for just a moment, resting on mine, and he lets out a pitiful roar and then goes silent, his eyes blinking closed.
He doesn’t open them again.
A hand on my shoulder has me jumping, but I look up to find Soren, covered in blood, while Brogan disables the last soul-eater. There are limbs and blood everywhere and the smell in here is making me dizzy.
“How is he?”
I shake my head, keeping my voice low just in case Finn can hear me. “It’s so bad, Soren.”
My chest hurts and I just want to cry. Poor Finn, he’s just so hurt, and I don’t know what to do. I don’t even know if we’ll be able to sew him up, since his scales are so hard and he’s losing so much blood.
I can’t lose him. We haven’t even had time to get to know each other.
Fighting the tears welling up inside me, I drop back onto my heels and shake my head. No. I won’t sit here and cry. I can’t heal him, but I know someone who can.
I get to my feet, ignoring the damp patches at my knees where my jeans are drenched in blood.
“I’ll be right back. I have an idea of someone who can help.” I put one hand on Finn’s scales. I don’t really want to leave him, but it’s the only way.
