Nora swiped the blood from her mouth, eyes hardening. “I am not one of your damn cretins, Mal. I know how Caylem died. Did you really think I wouldn’t find out the truth, that I would docilely follow your every decree? You’ve been trying for millennia to locate that soul, but I got a trace of it the moment I came to this world. I’ve known for a year she possessed it, but your desires didn’t fit in with my plans. I had to getyouonto this realm, so I could exactmyvengeance. I used your need for retribution against the warrior to do so.”
What the hell was she talking about? Darci glowered at her. Blaéz lowered his sword. What was he doing?
“Who do you think is responsible for Cay’s death?” At Maloch’s growl, Darci’s gaze darted back to him. He was still trying to heal himself, his hand moving furiously over the wound. “Why do you think I seek justice?”
“Justice?” Nora repeated. “You wouldn’t know the meaning of the word if it bit you in the ass. YoucompelledCay to fight a deranged warrior. Win, and he would be accepted by you—he was just a boy who looked up to you, and you killed him!”
Darci frowned. Her confused gaze pinned on Nora’s furious face. This wasn’t about taking Blaéz’s soul back?
“It was just a game gone wrong.” Maloch’s hand shot out. He grasped Nora’s arm and twisted it behind her. “Take me back to the Dark Realm. That’s an order!”
Pulled so close to him, Nora’s head was forced to tilt up. She spat in his face. “Afraid if you die here you’ll be dead for all eternity without a chance at rebirth?” She slid from his grip like a slippery eel.
“Then I’ll take what is mine—” Maloch hurled out a power blast at Darci.
Before she even blinked, Blaéz moved with preternatural speed, blocking her with his body. The discharge flung him into the trees some distance away. The minions, freed from Blaéz’s psychic hold, attacked him.
“Blaéz!” Darci screamed. Before she could run after him, Maloch flashed and grabbed her, the stench of sulfur so strong, bile churned her stomach. She fought him with the strength of an insect, but he easily forced her jaw open, his nails piercing her cheeks. Her pained cry lodged in her throat.
No!She didn’t want to die this way. But trapped by his glowing red gaze, her hands fell limply to her sides and she stood there like a rag doll as his opened maw hovered above hers. He pulled in her breath. Her lungs tightened, she struggled to breathe while Maloch sucked out her life force like some demented vacuum.
A gut-chilling roar broke through the silence as her vision darkened. Then she was free. Maloch was ripped from her and sent flying away. Darci reeled back, a spasm of coughing wracking her. Her chest hurt, like it was on fire.
Blaéz ran his sword through Maloch. “She doesn’t have my fucking soul you goddamned son-of-a-bitch!” As his blade swung in for the kill, Nora darted between them in a blur, a flash of silver in her hand. The dagger she held dripped red with blood as she stopped on the other side. A thin red line appeared in Maloch’s neck…then blood gushed.
“That’s for Caylem,” she spat. “Andfor hurting my friend.” She glanced at Blaéz. “You can’t kill him, warrior. His spell made it so—but I can.”
A chill seeped into Darci. She blinked, trying to clear her fuzzy head as Maloch started to waver in death. The trees surrounding her began to sway, she glanced up, and the star-studded sky above joined in the spin. Something was terribly wrong.
“Blaéz…” Her stuttered whisper was barely audible amidst the gurgling sounds Maloch made. Everything around her dimmed, her knees caved, and she was falling.
No…not Maloch’s death gasps.
Hers.
Chapter 30
Amidst Maloch chokingon his own gore, a faint gasp reached Blaéz’s ears. He pivoted
“Darci—no!” His hoarse yell echoed in the eerily calm night, his heart crashing against his sternum as Darci fell. With preternatural speed, he moved, shoving Týr out of his way. The warrior who had taken form in front of him said something about Aethan taking care of the fuckers on the other side. Blaéz didn’t care. He skidded to his knees next to Darci and swept her into his arms. Her head and limbs flopped like a lifeless doll.
He felt for a pulse on her neck. Nothing. “No—no, you aren’t leaving me, this isn’t over between us!”
He telepathed Aethan,I need you.Right then he didn’t care if the world came crashing down and was overrun with demons. The only thing that mattered was the woman in his arms. She was his entire existence.
“Come on, Darci, talk to me,” he pleaded. Unending silence answered him. Her eyes remained shut. The few freckles across the bridge of her nose appeared like rusty smudges on her pasty skin. All his bitter words to her from earlier hit him with the force of unleashed arrows. Yelling at her, denying her, when all she thought of was him. He wasn’t worth her sacrifice—she was the one who deserved life.She, not him. Pain made it hard to take a breath, to take another step.
He barely registered as Týr cursed and hunkered beside him, looking on helplessly.
Seconds later, Aethan took form near them, appearing as if he’d been tossed through Hell, dispensing his own accursed power. Pale as the moon, he didn’t ask questions, lowered on his heels opposite Darci’s motionless body and glanced at Blaéz. “You need to let go of her. This is going to hurt.”
Like he cared. “Do it!”
Aethan nodded and laid both his hands on her chest. As his powers surged from him into Darci, Blaéz could sense the electricity flow wrapping around Darci’s heart, sharp and intense. A jolt, and her body convulsed.
Feeling as if a thunderbolt struck him, Blaéz inhaled harshly. He pressed two shaky fingers to her throat for a heartbeat. Still nothing. “Come on,a leannan—you have to breathe.”
God damn the fates. Rage and despair warred within him as he held her. She never stood a chance. She was just meant to pass back his soul and die. He pressed her cold hands to his bare chest, trying to infuse his warmth into her. Remorse hit him hard.
