Page 73 of Treasured

Take my hand! I yelled through the bond. The magic binding us was older than prohiberis. At least we still had this.

Her fingers brushed against mine, and then, I had her.

She sobbed, “Sebastian.”

“I’m here,” I choked out. Death would not win today. It would not steal Luna from me.

We were still falling. The wind whooshed past us. Hugging Luna, I turned us so her back was to my front, and we were both looking up at the falling prohiberis.

I will always love you, I said.

Then my back slammed onto the ice, and everything went black.

* * *

When I finally convinced my eyes to open, pain radiated through my entire body. Luna hovered over me, her wrist was in my mouth, and blood streaked down her face.

“Oh, thank the gods,” she wept.

I was still alive.

I pulled my fangs from Luna’s wrist. She wiped away her tears. Bending, she brushed her lips over mine in a tender kiss. It was soft and warm and filled with concern. “I wasn’t sure you would wake.”

My head throbbed, my throat was dry, and my entire body hurt.

None of it mattered, though. Luna was alive.

“Are you okay?” I visually searched her for injuries but didn’t see any. I would suffer a thousand falls, and be staked a million times to spare her pain.

“I’m fine.” Luna twisted some fabric in her hand. The satchel, I realized.

My eyes widened. “The wolf’s blood, did it—”

“The vial isn’t broken,” she said quickly. “The sunfire feather and the moonstone survived the fall as well.”

That was good news, but Luna didn’t look happy. Her mouth pinched in a straight line, and tears still flowed down her cheeks.

“What’s wrong?”

“The tonic…” She swallowed. “It’s gone. The vials broke, and there’s none left.”

Alarm ran through me, and my blood chilled. It took everything I had not to let my panic show on my face. I didn’t want to worry Luna further. Trying to remain calm, I reached within myself and pulled on my magic.

My veins were empty and void of magic. Silence was the only response. Not only that, but there was a horrible pain in my left side. I inched my hand upwards until I encountered something cold and unnatural. A shard of ice as long as my hand was stuck in me.

Damn.

Luna didn’t seem to notice the injury, and I didn’t draw her attention to it. The horrible truth was we could not do anything about it right now. The entire cave was made of prohiberis. If I pulled out the ice, there was a chance I would bleed out before I healed.

At least that explained the pain.

A dozen expletives slipped from my tongue as I pushed myself to my feet. The cave was empty and cold, save for the presence of the obsidian magic-blocking stones.

Gods.

A quick glance upwards confirmed we’d fallen several hundred feet. It was a miracle I was standing, even with Luna’s blood. Obviously, we couldn’t return the way we came.

Reaching out, I helped Luna to her feet. My breath was heavier than normal, and I swayed, trying to mask the agony.

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