“Fuck, Skylar!”
My attention snapped toward Shaw just as his teeth sank into the creature’s flesh. His claws tore at the sickly gray skin along its neck, and a severed head rolled along the dirt. It would have been a moment of relief, but the bleeding wound on Shaw’s shoulder wasn’t closing or healing. It should’ve been healing.
“I-it bit me, Sky. I-I can’t…”
“Shaw!” I screamed in a panic, feeling his tether to me beginning to fade.
The fallen I was facing took advantage of the distraction, lashing out at my side and making me dive into a roll and expose my backside. An ice dagger flew through the air, colliding with the shoulder of the fallen, granting me the time to quickly roll to my left just as the blade came crashing down where I once was. The creature roared in frustration.
I kicked out against the flat side of the blade to disarm it and drew on my animal’s rising power. Without hesitating, I flung myself onto the fallen’s injured shoulder, and with my alpha blade drawn, I sliced through its neck. Black blood spewed outward in a fan as the headless body collapsed to the ground.
My hands began trembling as I clenched the head of the creature in my grasp, unable to look away at the lifeI was forced to take. At the face of the beast that I could have saved.
“Skylar!” Daxton came to my side, his hand gliding over mine, urging me to let go. “It’s done. You can’t carry the burden of their death. They were dead long before your blade made this cut.”
He knew. Gods be damned, he knew that guilt of taking the life of this nalusa falaya had struck a chord in my center, holding me frozen in place.
“But I—”
“Unlock the Heart,” my mate said. “Unlock the Heart, and perhaps not all those who were taken will be lost.”
I released the head, letting it fall to my feet as I stepped back and shook myself to try and regain my senses.
“Skylar!” Idris’s cry broke me from my trance.
“Shaw!” I yelled in a panic as I rushed to my beta’s side. “Shift,” I commanded, needing to assess the damage masked under his blanket of midnight fur.
“How bad?” Shaw’s voice was barely a whisper as he lay motionless on the earth in his human form.
“You’ve been through worse,” I lied.
“That’s a relief.”
Even though I was drained, I needed to do this. I couldn’t sit here, watch my beta become a nalusa falaya, and do nothing. The black threads of poison were already coursing through his veins. There wasn’t enough time tomove him inside the wards. I had to heal him here, or else he—
“Here,” Daxton said, placing a hand on my shoulder, “take what you need. Heal him, Skylar.”
Placing my hands on Shaw, I gave a nod of thanks to my mate, feeling his magic flowing throughout our bond and somehow fueling my wells of power. My palms glowed in a golden hue, erasing the remnants of the fallen’s bite and eradicating the poison.
I gasped, collapsing backward into Daxton’s arms. Despite his help, I was exhausted. “Gods above,” I cursed. “Don’t do that again, Shaw.”
“I’ll do my best,” Shaw said in an unsteady voice. His wound was healed, but he was still a bit shaky.
Daxton cradled me in his arms, and for once, I didn’t fight against him doing so. “We need to get out of here.”
“Zola?” I asked.
“She’s alive but unconscious. We’ve got her,” Idris answered as she released a long whistle into the sky to call riders down to us.
“Let me take her,” Shaw said, rising to his feet. “I’m strong enough to ride.”
“Put a cloak on your lap, and then maybe I’ll let you,” Idris snapped.
“You are riding with me, Idris.” There was no room for argument in Adohan’s tone.
“The only reason why I’m even thinking of letting my best friend go with you is because you did just jump into a death circle and save her life,” Idris said.
“Shaw will look after her,” I mumbled, my head falling into Daxton’s chest.
