Page 145 of Alien God

Triumph and rage swirling inside me, I plunged my sword forward, right through the creature, pinning it to the wall. Instantly, it stopped moving.

Cursed stars, all I could smell was Torrance, along with something else, something bitter and familiar.

“Torrance!” I bellowed, twisting, keeping my arms in place while I looked for her. But she wasn’t there. She wasn’t anywhere.

The starburn hit me one treacherous moment too late. Too late to have warned me. Too late to have helped me sense what I was doing, what I’d done.

Fever slamming through my body, I snapped my gaze back to the monster only to find it gone. A mere illusion, a collection of shadows dispersed into dust. And the one I’d pinned to the wall with my blade...

Was Torrance.

I screamed so loudly I thought I’d smash my own ribs with the force. Totally obliterate myself. There she was, my perfect one, my snow-and-honey-eyed girl, my beloved little bride, my mate, my mate, my mate, unblinking and unmoving, slumped over my blade.

Words smashed against each other in my reeling brain. Words like no, no, no and whispering echoes of Rúnwebbe’s prophecy.

Fated bride of Wylfrael. Starburning, but afraid,

And when she dies it will be by her husband’s hand and blade.

I’d tried to outrun it. Tried to hide from it. Tried not to seek out my fate.

But fate had found me anyway.

Found me, and left me ruined.

Not knowing what else to do, I scooped my beloved, so limp, so cursedly limp, Sionnach save me, into my arms. I wanted to pull out the sword but knew it would do no good. She’d only bleed out faster that way.

I could feel her heartbeat, slow and weak against me as I ran out the doors and the gates.

And I could feel it stop as I launched madly into the air.

The council could not, would not help me. That was as clear as summer Sionnachan sky. They’d orchestrated this for some reason – set up this illusion so that I’d kill my own mate and therefore kill myself. It was only the fact I hadn’t starburned or given Torrance my knot yet that I was still alive.

I starburned now, though. A harrowing heat searing through my limbs, making my wings quake as I pulsed them in ragged strokes, bringing us ever higher. The cruelty of the timing made me want to die. I should have. Back in Heofonraed’s halls. I should have disappeared for what I’d done. Should have gone with her into the dark.

“Torrance, Torrance, I love you. Love you. Please, please, please don’t go.”

I begged her as I flew, knowing she’d already gone but not able to accept that I merely held a body now and not my beloved.

There’s still time, I told myself, fierce with desperation, latching onto one last mad, unlikely hope. There was only one god I knew who could beat back the shadows of death without the council’s power. Vowing that I’d make him help me even if it killed me, I channelled all my remaining strength into opening a sky door. I flung myself through it, clutching Torrance as I hurled back into the sky of the Shadowlands.

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