A lifetime of fieldwork has trained me to observe first, to analyze, to think—but this isn’t that kind of moment. BecauseI’m not Dahlia, the scientist anymore. I am Sruhnar, and I am going to protect my mate.
I don’t think. Instead, I react on pure primitive instinct.
Time fractures. I see Sita’s mouth open in a scream, but all I hear is the determined beat of my own heart, pushing out the blood I need to save him. I don’t feel the burn in my legs as I throw myself forward, snow crunching, gravel kicking up in my wake. I don’t heed the wind howling around us, the mountains crying their warnings.
The only thing that exists is that gun. This moment. This choice.
I push faster. Each movement is unstoppable. I am already marked for death; let Eryon have a second chance.
In slow motion, I see the minute motion of Ben’s finger pulling the trigger followed by the recoil. I should be scared, terrified of being shot, but instead, all I feel is a deep sense of calm in achieving what I had set out to do. For even if I die, Eryon will know that he is worth saving. There is no greater purpose for my life that I could have chosen.
I brace myself for the impact of the bullet, but there is no deafening crack, no explosion of pain. Instead, a sharp sting pierces my shoulder. I look down, but instead of the blood I expect to see blooming from a gunshot wound, I find a dart.
I try to reach for it, but my arm won’t listen. Instead, it falls limply to my side as a wave of syrupy warmth floods my veins, sticky and slow. My legs buckle, and I crash hard onto my knees, the impact rattling up my spine. Then the ice rushes up to meet me. My head hits with a solid crack, and stars dance in my vision. I am completely paralyzed. Helpless to do anything except watch.
I feel everything—the shock of the cold ground pressed against my cheek, the icy wind whipping snow against my face. My lungs seize. I try to breathe, but the air is too thick. The weight in my limbs spreads until I am as heavy as stone.
I can’t see Eryon anymore, but I know he’s there. I can feel him, just beyond the dark closing in. I wish I could call out to him. Just once. I wish I could tell him this was my choice. That I would choose him every time.
A shadow moves over me, and for a brief second, hope flares in my chest that I will at least get to see him once more. But I truly am cursed, because instead Ben’s ugly mug floods my vision.
If I had the strength, I would be furious that his is the last face I see instead of my mate’s. But my mind is too tired for even that.
For a second, something flickers across his face that looks like regret. As if he can’t believe he pulled the trigger. As if, for one fleeting moment, he remembers who I used to be.
The girl who gave up everything for him. The girl who pushed his work forward, made him look brilliant, built his success at the cost of her own. The girl who let herself shrink so he could shine. The one who would have done anything to stand by his side.
But that girl is gone.
In her place, a woman lies paralyzed in the snow. And if he mourns her at all, it isn’t for my sake. It’s for the control he lost. The power he will never hold over me again.
His jaw tightens, and the moment evaporates like a cloud of breath in the cold. There is no remorse. Only greed. The truth pierces my foggy thoughts—I was always disposable to him.
Somewhere behind me, Eryon moves. I cannot see him, but I feel it in the way the air shifts and the pressure changes. A presence so vast it warps the space around him. Unstoppable. Inevitable.
The storm has broken—and Eryon is the avalanche.
A roar tears through the air. Not just a sound, but a reckoning. It crashes against the mountains, rolling through the cliffs, shaking the trees down to their roots. Snow tumblesin thick sheets from the ledges above, a force of nature set loose.
It reverberates through my bones and rattles in my chest, a sound so powerful it feels like a touch, his touch. A sound that is not just rage but promise.
You will not take her from me.
A roar that does not just judge, but condemns. That does not bargain, does not plead, does not leave room for mercy. A deep guttural promise of not just destruction, but death. The scales of nature will be balanced.
Ben stumbles back, face as pale as the surrounding snow. His bravado falters for the first time—he looks afraid.
I force my lips to move, my breath shallow, my strength draining from me like melting snow. My voice is barely a whisper, but I make sure Ben hears it. Ineedhim to hear it.
Before the darkness claims me, with the very last iota of strength I have left, I gasp, “You're the only monster here, Ben.”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Eryon - Earlier
She betrayed me.
The words are poison in my veins, a sickness that burns through my chest. I watch her lie, about me, about us and everything we had. I see her step toward the man who tried to steal what was mine. I witness her speak false words, hold out her hands tohim—hands that once clutched at me, traced my skin, trembled in my grip as she came undone.
