He nods and folds his legs underneath him as he comes to sit in the grass beside me.
“Don’t worry,” he says. “I’ll stay with you.”
His hand rests on my back, and I try to make my peace, but it’s difficult, knowing thatthisis how I die.
At the hands of a man who isn’t even brave enough to ask, but only to take.
Anger sears my insides as I look at Covington lashing out at the trees. If I could move, I’d rip every piece of flesh from his bones. But as the potion doles out its poison, I have no choice but to wait as he bends my body to his will.
Not wanting Covington’s pale and putrid face to be the last thing I see, I close my eyes to find the one that brings me peace.
Elliot.
I search for the threads of our bond, and find them featherlight, barely there. But I reach across them anyway, hoping he can feel me as I start to slip.
I love you.
To my surprise, he answers.
“Iris!”
It takes all my strength just to peel my eyes open, but when I do, I catch the massive blur of black fur sweeping in through the trees.
Hot on his tail are two other wolves, both golden-coated, one with hands, feet, and tail dipped in black, and the other with identical markings made in white. Kitty and Elliot, respectively. Ahead of them, Dred materializes out of the dark, and Elsie winks into sight.
“He’s a shadow-walker!” Dred shouts.
I want to correct him, but I can’t. My head won’t lift from the forest floor, let alone clear long enough for words to form. But it isn’t long before they realize their mistake.
Soundlessly, Covington’s magic crawls over them. Tendrils of smoke curl up from the earth, snaking around their limbs and pulling them down to the ground in one hard jerk.
“Shadow weaver!” Dred corrects.
Kitty whines as she hits the floor, and Dame thrashes against the shadows, but Elliot manages to tear free.
“Elsie!” Dame barks as Elliot claws his way through the shadows pinning him and Kitty. “Light the clearing!”
Elsie is standing directly in front of me, guarding me while the others close in on Covington.
“You enchantress bitch!” he shouts, realizing his power is dead in the sunlight.
They need little direction as they assume a tight formation. Elliot takes the center, with Kitty and Dame flanking him on either side, and Dred taking up the rear, before they break off, driving at him as Elsie’s power swells.
A ball of golden light sprouts from her palms, consuming the clearing in a flash, and leaving Covington exposed and powerless as the others descend on him.
Dame and Kitty each take an arm while Dred grips his ankles and Elliot ropes his hands around his neck.
Wordlessly, they all break away, ripping his limbs from his body with a sickening crunch.
I watch, unblinking, as Elliot keeps his promise and tears Covington into a million pieces. Dame continues shredding him to ribbons, but Elliot breaks away, racing toward me.
I think I hear my heart singing as he kneels before me, bloodied and bruised but whole. As long as he’s whole.
“Iris?” His voice is tight, hurried as his hands rush over me. “Baby, look at me.”
I am. Or at least I think I am, but my vision is starting to splinter, and there are at least three Elliots bending over me. Each of them more beautiful than the last.
There are worse things to see before you die than the man you love.
