I thought we were back in the Southern Isles.
But then I lifted my head and twin suns greeted me in the sky.
Two suns!
Not one but two. Both haloed by pale rings that turned slowly, like they were watching us.
My hope died, and my fascination barely had a chance to bloom.
I’d never read of anywhere that had two suns.
My journal made mention of two moons in the sky last month during the Phantom Moon, but this was on a whole other level of unreal.
I looked back at Wolfe, and panicked when I realized he wasn’t moving.
I forgot the numbness in my limbs and pushed myself up, panic slicing clean through the haze as I turned to look at him, really look.
His face—beautiful even like this, even marred—was ashen. Blood darkened the wound around his chest, and his lashes rested too still against his cheeks.
He looked like he would never wake again.
Blessed Mother, please don’t tell me he was dead.
Please. No.
I touched his cheek, watching for any sign of breath. There was nothing. No rise of his chest. No warmth of air against my fingers.
“Wolfe,” I whispered, the word breaking. “Wolfe. Please. Wake up.”
I shook his shoulder and pressed my palm to his chest, searching desperately for a heartbeat.
Nothing.
Across from me, Arielle, Bastian, Garrick, and Alaric lay sprawled on the sand. They were dazed, blinking through the aftermath, dragging air into their lungs like they’d been dragged from drowning.
“Guys!” I called, my voice raw. “He’s not breathing.”
Bastian was the first on his feet. The others followed, shaking off the portal’s shock as they stumbled toward us.
Bastian dropped to his knees beside me, his gaze sweeping over Wolfe with grim focus. Arielle was there a heartbeat later, her hands already moving, checking the wound, pressing to his chest, searching for a heartbeat.
Alaric and Garrick stood over us, tense and silent, watching and waiting.
“He’s barely breathing,” Arielle announced. “And his heartbeat is faint. He’s in a bad way. Even with my healing abilities, we’ll need herbs. A poultice. Something to pack the wound.”
I was glad Wolfe was breathing, but fear wrapped tightly around my chest as I gazed down at his still form.
“Can we help him?” Emotion clogged my throat.
“We’ll try everything. Summoning the portal wiped him out,” Bastian muttered. “He must have used his Deathwalker powers to get us out.”
Deathwalker powers.
His curse, like mine, that came from losing the ring.
“We wouldn’t have gotten out of there without him,” Arielle choked out.
“We have to find whatever we need to help him,” Alaric joined in.
