“Someone—anyone, help me!”Her frail voice didn’t carry. Tears brimming, she looked down at herself.
A half sob escaped her. A black-tipped arrowhead stuck out of her chest.
“Finally got her!” A grunt. “Let’s go.”
Tears slipped free as she shut her eyes. She was going to die here.I tried so hard.
One hand dropped to her side, her wrist brushing against her thigh. A tingle coasted through her arm. Her eyelids flickered open.
She blinked at the recent scar on her wrist from the encounter with the ghost snake.
Please, please, let this work…
More tears dripped as she rubbed the mark.“Help me, please…”
With immense pain consuming her and each breath hurting like knives in her chest, she curled into herself, a deepening chill coursing through her. Oblivion hovered. “A-Aerén…”
Sssstay!
The demand ricocheted inside her head, snagging Leya from slipping into darkness—
Stones clattered. Debris rained down.
Tell him…love him…forever…
Her heart ached because no one would tell him that. He’d fought so hard for her, for them… Hot tears dripped down her cold face.
A gleam of white sparkles, like stars in the darkness, surrounded her.
Leya shut her eyes, feeling as if the place were moving. Maybe she was falling again.
I love you,she sent out to the ether, and hoped Aerén knew just how much she did as darkness claimed her…
CHAPTER35
Leya!Aerén flung out her name mentally, not daring to yell in case the rocks came clattering down as they made their way through the cave, thick with dust and debris from the collapse.
Nothing, not even a moan, in this ominously quiet place.
This cave where she saved him, fought for him, and now where she was trapped because he hadn’t known she’d fallen. His chest tightened in torment and regret.
Just when she finally relented, let go of her terror of him being banished and accepted they would have a life together, fate would toss this shit on them, as if denying him a mate bond wasn’t enough.
His enforcers and Taegér spread out.
Aerén passed two more soft spots—portal entries he hadn’t sensed the first time because of the damn spell. He ignored them. Rubble and rocks blocked their way, and they were unable to blast their way through, not when the rest of the unstable volcano could very well collapse on Leya.
He shut out the dark thought and dematerialized, coasting between gaps in the fallen slabs of rocks.
Voices echoed. “Good job, you got thelupa.”
“Let’s get out of here,” another grunted.
Anger exploding, Aerén reformed and slammed into the two bloodied rebels. A bow dropped from the hands of one of them as he rammed their heads against the granite. Bones cracked.
“Where is she?”
“Dead.” The hefty rebel grinned and punched Aerén in the belly.
