Vaesarra screeched past, the sound tearing through the wind. But unable to fly with her shredded wing, she grabbed a lower ledge, clawing her way back up and catching the same shelf Ash clung to.
Smoke curled from her burned wing, her expression feral. “Wretched human, so easily brought down. Eracier isn’t coming for you!”
Ash barely heard her as her grip slipped. Her broken left arm dangled uselessly, every breath stabbing her ribs like knives.
Vaesarra clawed at Ash’s fingers, trying to pry them loose. Teeth clenched, she forced lightning up her arm. It sparked and dimmed.
“All will believe I was the victim,” Vaesarra shrieked as the winds picked up. “You must die so the truth dies with you. My miscalculation with Malcarion will never be discovered!” She wrenched harder. “Eracier can never know I brought Lemuria down.”
Ash’s nails tore against the stone, her fingertips bloody, her strength bleeding out. Her chest cinched tight, her vision fading as her hold faltered, the bitch tugging at her. She couldn’t—wouldn’t—hold much longer.
Her power guttered like a dying storm.
Then the mate-bond flared, molten-hot. Race’s roar thundered through her mind.Hold on—just hold, heart-fire. I’m close!
“No…” Her voice broke, tears blurring her vision. He wasn’t close enough. He would never make it in time.
Her fingers skated farther along the surface, too slick with blood?—
And then there was nothing.
She fell, arms flailing, a scream tearing from her throat?—
Vaesarra caught her wrist, and Ash blinked up at her, meeting her cruel smile. She crouched on the shelf now, letting Ash dangle from a deathly plunge.
“Scared, little human?” She laughed. “You should be. This is what happens when weak creatures try to climb beyond their place.”
Spiteful…bitch.
Ash gritted her teeth, forcing her mind past the haze of pain, past the terror, to what mattered most. If she died like this, she would drag Race to his death, as well. Their joined souls guaranteed that.
She couldn’t do that to him.
You can sever the bond if one of you is mortally wounded.Echo’s voice cut through her mind. Sharp. Clear.Find the warm thread within you, snap it?—
Vaesarra let go. “Goodbye, human.”
Tears dripped, stolen by the winds as Ash plunged to the jagged peaks below. Death came at a dizzying speed. Through her pain and the darkening thoughts, she reached inward, found the glowing thread of their soul bond deep within her?—
I love you.
With her mind, she snapped the tether.
Agony, unlike anything she’d ever known, ripped through her chest. Her scream became Race’s answering roar of despair.
The world dimmed as darkness swallowed her.
Race fought the backdraft, desperate to reach Ash as he followed the tug of their mate bond. His head still throbbed from the cave-in, vision blurring at the edges, but adrenaline drove him harder toward the mountains.
His mate was in danger.
Through their bond, her terror and dread gutted him.Fuck!He circled faster around the mountain range. Down which fucking abyss had she fallen?
Then something tugged at him. He had no idea what the fuck it was.
He followed it to a ruined lookout post—and then down into the abyss, reckless in flight, heedless of his wings tearing through low clouds and slamming against granite.
Ash!he begged through their mind-link.Hold on, my heart?—
