Flame lanced toward me, and I swerved to avoid it, heat blasting my face as I kept running toward the beast.
Heat singed my back. I veered left on instinct to avoid the blast of fire.
I was almost on the nagrata when it took to the air.
A sob of frustration clawed up my throat. “Fuck you!”
A hissing sound filled the air, and in the next beat, a dark swirl appeared in front of me. I staggered back, my heart in my mouth as a large male figure ran out of the strange portal. A man with silver hair laced with deep blue and eyes like sapphires.
I was dead.
I had to be dead.
It was the only way he could be here.
How was he here? Was I hallucinating?
Flame lanced toward him.
Hallucinations did not get flambéed. “Watch out!”
Pashim spun and threw up an arm, creating a shield of shimmering water. The fire hit it with a sizzle, spreading outward and dissipating.
Gods, he was here. He was really fucking here. How was this possible?
“Leela. Move!” he ordered.
Weeks of obeying his commands galvanized my limbs into action. I ran toward him, my stupid heart in my mouth, joy exploding in my chest even though we were being attacked by nagrata.
The air behind me spat and rumbled, and I didn’t even give a shit.
Pashim was here.
The fire died, and Pashim drew his sword, spinning away from me and toward the nagrata as I came abreast of him.
“You ready to bring this thing down?” he asked.
“Yes.” The word was breathless, probably because of the hearts in my eyes.
He glanced down at me for a beat, his expression softening a fraction. “Then let’s do it.”
He snagged me around the waist, hauling me against his hard, very real, very alive frame, and then shot a stream of water at the ground, using it to propel us into the air.
“Blades up!” he called.
The nagrata’s belly met our blades, and we dropped with the jet of water, dragging a sharp path down its abdomen and spilling its guts.
Its scream was like needles burrowing in my head. We dropped, but it remained in the air for a beat longer before crashing into a crater of snow and ice.
I looked up into Pashim’s eyes, one palm pressed to his chest, my heart thrashing against my ribs, and for a moment, there was just us. No dead nagrata. No live one barreling toward us.
Nothing but him.
“I know,” he said softly. “Now let’s finish this.” He grinned, wild and wicked, and my pulse kicked up because I knew that look from training. TheI’m about to hand your ass to youlook, but in this case, we were going to hand the nagrata its own ass, or whatever.
We faced the incoming beast, and I prepared to launch myself at it. The wind began to howl, the blizzard starting up again, but the crimson-eyed nagrata remained focused on me. On ending my life.
It thundered toward us, wings splaying in preparation to take off.
