He holds me in his arms, hovering in the sky, and returns my bruising kiss, groaning deep in his throat. He dips his tongue into my mouth in a rough sweep and claims me. I claim him right back, licking, biting, and suckling.
I can’t get enough. The taste of him ... the smell of him ... the feel of him.
Home. I’m home.
“Sunny,” he whispers before pressing another kiss to my lips, nibbling my bottom lip, then sucking it into his mouth. “Don’t ever leave me again.” He punctuates his plea with more kisses. “It nearly destroyed me. I don’t want to exist another second without you by my side.”
“You won’t have to, Ethan. I lov—” My backs arches as pain lances through every cell in my body, and a tortured scream erupts from my mouth.
“What’s happening?” Ethan cups my face and scans every inch of my body with frantic eyes. “Tell me, baby. What can I do?”
“Blood ... oath ...” I hold out my left palm, blood gushing from the mark of the oath, then cry out as agony slashes through me, my body jerking in his arms.
“That motherfucker,” he hisses through gritted teeth, understanding immediately. “My father made you vow never to return to me?”
“K-Kingdom of Mountains. Never r-return.” I writhe as pain threatens to shatter my mind.
“I’m getting you out of here.” He streaks through the sky toward the portal. “I have a token. You go back first.”
Miraculously, I haven’t dropped the tree branch that Keeper Bae handed me. I wave it in front of Ethan’s nose. “Me too. T-together.”
“Thank gods,” he breathes.
Unfortunately, his relief was premature. A black tentacle shoots up from the ground like a giant beanstalk with deadly intent.
“Look out!” I shout.
Muttering a curse, Ethan grips me tightly against his chest and dives straight for the dark limb.
“Wh-what are you doing?” I shout, digging my nails into his shoulder.
At the last possible millisecond, he swerves sharply to the right, and the tentacle shoots past us, carried by its momentum. Ethan hovers in the sky, whipping his head left and right, but another serpentine limb punches through the sky from directly above us.
“Eth—” The blood oath sears my insides, and a shriek tears past my throat, preventing me from warning him.
Not like this.
But the darkness doesn’t rip through us. A second passes, then two. And I pat his chest, then mine to make sure there are no gaping holes in either of us. My whole existence is pain at the moment, but we’re both unhurt.
How?
I glance around, struggling to focus my gaze through the torture of the blood oath. Then I blearily make out the tight dome of green and silvergiabove us. Ethan threw a shield around us in the nick of time.
“H-handy that,” I croak.
“I don’t know how long I can hold—” Ethan grunts, lurching forward as though someone punched him in the stomach. His arms loosen from my body for a terrifying heartbeat before he tightens his grip again.
“What’s wrong?” I cry. “Are you hurt? What’s going on, Ethan?”
“Gods.” His eyes grow distant, then fill with horror. “The Amheuk is destroying the Kingdom of Mountains. Its life force is ... weeping.”
“I’m so sorry, Ethan.” I raise a shaking hand, even as I whimper in pain, and cup his cheek.
“I ... I can’t breathe.” He sounds faint, as though he’s fading away. “My kingdom ...”
“Ethan, look at me.” Strangely enough, the agony shredding me apart eases by a fraction, and I manage to suck in short little breaths. “Look at me.”
He shakes his head, his gaze darting around as more and more black tentacles tear through the Kingdom of Mountains. A tear slides down his cheek as he sways in the sky, and he says brokenly, “I’m sorry, Mother.”
