I hit a stretch of soft sand and sprint as best I can, but I’ve slipped into one of those horrible dreams where even my best efforts fall short. The world narrows, everything too loud, too bright, and oh, goddess, he’s going to catch me. He’s going toeatme. Heavy splashes erupt behind me, each one louder than the last.
I bolt for the setting sun, willing it to sink faster, but I still have thirty seconds left, maybe a minute.
Adrenaline douses my system. My legs ignite, the balls of my feet driving into the sand. Water squelches from my boots, but I can’t stop, can’t slow, can’t?—
Thunk. My foot catches on a rock and I go down hard, splashingface-first into a shallow violet stream. Every nerve screams as I twist around.
The Shadow drops to all fours mid-stride, streaking toward me like an aimed javelin. Razor-sharp claws fling sand aside. Jets of glowing water erupt around his feet. Each gleaming fang seems to elongate as he closes the last few feet?—
I fling an arm up, my eyes squeezed shut. I can’t believethisis how I die. With the bite of teeth. The sting of claws.
Something punches into the wet sand beside my head. Then another something, on the other side.
I recoil, my heartbeat an endless scream, so loud it drowns out everything else. But pain doesn’t come.
A second passes. Another. Then three, then four, then five.
I peek through slitted lashes to find the Shadow’s face mere inches from mine. Glowing eyes drill into me, air hissing between his teeth as his chest works like a bellows. But he doesn’t attack. He doesn’t even move.
“Sh-shadow?” I whimper.
He hovers, his arms bracketing my head, his frame taut and thrumming. Only he doesn’t seem to be inside it anymore. There’s a flatness to his look, a…vacancy. Like the monster has gone, but the goblin hasn’t yet taken his place.
My chin trembles as I chance a glance behind me. The sun has vanished, leaving a smear of yellow light across the horizon.
A seed of hope plants itself in my chest. “Shadow? Can you hear me?”
No answer. I peek at my bracelet, which has gotten spun in the shuffle, shutting Amriel out. But those gleaming golden eyes must contain him, too, so I peer up into them, beseeching. “Please. Say something.”
A sharp breath rushes into his lungs, then returns to me as a faint growl, hardly more than a low vibration on the air. His eyes move back and forth, something surfacing there with every pass.
It’s like watching someone emerge from a dream. Like seeing a glittering ocean creature materialize from the deep.
“P…” He blinks. “P-Princess?”
His voice sounds rusty and guttural, like he hasn’t used it in hours. Which he hasn’t, of course. But it’shim,now. My Shadow. My mate.
Relief slams into me, and I fall back, sand squelching beneath me as violet wavelets lap at my thighs. Adrenaline still bathes my insides, my limbs shaking as I plaster my hands over my face.
Oh, goddess. I almost died. I almost died in a way that would have destroyed us both.
I breathe deep until the pressure in my skull eases. Until the grip of terror fades. When I look up again, horror crowds the Shadow’s expression. Glowing beads of water drip from his hair and slide down his cheeks, but now that my fear has dissipated, my hands itch with the need to reach up, to wipe them away.
I do.
He flinches at my touch but doesn’t pull away. The bond flickers, granting me a glimpse of the war inside him—overwhelming protectiveness fills him, only it’s tainted. Sullied by the mindless hunger still curdling in his blood.
“Princess, I…” Nausea pulls the words back down his throat. But he tries again, forces them out on a hoarse breath. “I almost hurt you. I almost tore you apart.”
“It’s all right.” My fingertips trace the violet swirls that decorate his cheeks. “It wasn’tyou.”
Self-loathing drenches me through the bond. “It was, though. I…I could’vekilledyou.” He yanks one fist from the sand with a sucking sound, then finds my dagger and slides it free with a metallic hiss.
Too late, I see the intention in his mind, the desperation driving him to reverse the blade, to point it toward his chest.
“No!” I shriek, but it doesn’t deter him. He brings the blade down in a swift, savage arc. Straight toward his heart.
I don’t think. I justact, my hand darting between our bodies.Here, my mind supplies, remembering the day he told me where to stab. My palm lands against warm skin, and he jerks the blade to a stop, the tip a cold kiss against the back of my hand.
