Page 82 of Broken

Chapter 34

Without hesitating, Cole grabbed the connection to Riker. He could see him clearly in his mind.

Help me! he demanded. Help her! Give me the power!

Riker hesitated for a long moment, his eyes boring into Cole’s. And then he closed his eyes, yanked the magical flow away from the Fae, and shoved it through Ireland into Cole.

Cole felt like he had when Ireland first put the bracelet on him. All his nerve endings exploded at once, and the power lit up his skin from the inside.

He pushed it outward, exploding his stone cell into a million pieces. The backlash of power knocked the two Fae on their asses, stunning them.

Cole raced over to Ireland, sliding to his knees next to her. But he couldn’t get close to her—intense, deadly heat poured from her skin. She was glowing from the inside out, the chain around her left wrist melted away. She had her other hand wrapped around her bracelet, as if she could somehow stop it from bleeding power.

But she couldn’t. It was shining through her fingers, brighter and brighter—and when he looked across at Sakir, the twin bracelet glowing too.

The fucker wasn’t trying to take the power back. He was feeding his own power into Ireland’s bracelet. He was going to kill her.

Ireland’s skin glowed brighter, her left hand turning into a ball of energy that was almost too bright to look at.

A sun going supernova.

She was reaching out to Cole, silently begging him to help her.

And then, to his horror, he saw the hand on the bracelet begin to dissolve. The power overload was turning her body into pure energy.

Faint and far away, he heard the shouts of the Council. Bathiaz was backing away in horror.

Ireland’s arms grew brighter, more nebulous in form. Then her chest. Sparkling energy filled her.

He had to do something. He had to bring her back—or go with her.

Because they were together. Bonded. Wherever they were, whatever happened, it would happen to both of them.

Dimly, he heard Riker in his mind. Do it. Pull her back.

If Riker was telling him to do it, it meant he would probably die. But it didn’t matter.

Cole gathered his power—and threw himself into the heart of the star.

Heat roared around him, and for one terrifying second he thought he was dead. It took all his focus and willpower to keep his form—to focus the magical energy to keep him on the physical plane.

His wolf rose up in him. We are real. We are here. We feel the earth.

That was it. Grounding. Paws on the earth. Air and water and stone. Arms and legs and breath.

But Ireland was still dissolving beneath him. She didn’t know who she was. She’d never known. They’d taken that away from her.

Faintly, he could still feel her heartbeat, sense her blood flowing. But it was getting fainter, slower, fainter, slower…

And it stopped.

He couldn’t let her go.

Without thinking, he reached into her chest and wrapped his hands around her heart, holding it with infinite gentleness.

Dropping all his barriers, he became one with her, one with her wolf.

They were part of each other, like they were always supposed to be.