Page 164 of Their Blood Rite

She killed me. She actually killed me.

‘I knew you loved her,’ she laughs. ‘I could smell it on you. There was no way you would ever vow yourself to me. You think I don’t know when you lie, Ronan? I taught you how. Shame. Now all you shall have of her is the stench of rot and the knowledge that her last memory of you was a betrayal.’

Shaw roars such a roar. One to shake the earth. To have demons run scared. He drops me and launches himself at her,slashing and slicing with his sword as he just attacks. She counters with magic and dodges with skill, finding it all so funny.

I look at myself. Cold. Empty. Broken.

Dead.

I’m fucking dead.

I blink as Dorian stops by my side. His eyes are on my corpse as he pants from the fight. He shakes his head and falls to his knees.

‘Ashe…’ His fingers rest on my neck. He doesn’t feel my pulse. Gently, he brushes the hair from my face, leans down, and kisses my forehead. Only when the ground shakes does he look up.

Archie’s great wolf form skids to a stop, showering them with dried leaves and dirt. He looks down and sniffs. His snout nudges me, urging me to move. When I don’t, he whines. A sad little whine I would expect from a puppy. He nudges me again, looking at me as if waiting for me to sit up and go “BOO!”. Only when Sinthia’s demented laugh rings out does he look up. The sky fills with high-pitched shrieking.

‘More Unseelies…’ Dorian says, looking above. ‘Arch, we have to kill the coven and quickly. How did she summon them all so soon?’

They both look down at me.

‘We’ll come back for her.’ Dorian’s voice cracks as he speaks. ‘There’s… there’s nothing we can do.’

Archie snarls as he hears Sinthia’s laugh.

‘Archie, don’t!’ Dorian’s words are ignored, and Archie bounds away. ‘ARCHIE!’

But he’s gone.

Dorian gently rests my body against a tree, kisses my forehead, and leaves.

The Unseelie are coming. The Blood Coven is back.

I’m dead.

But I’m aware that I’m dead. I’m aware that I’m a spirit.

I haven’t moved on nor am I lost to rage, despair or pain.

The air illuminates with fire and explosions. Dark Unseelie creatures swoop and dive from above. They claw their way up from the earth.

‘Shame,’ I hear Cole say. I turn to see him looking down at my body.

What the fuck is he doing here?

He nudges me with his foot and scoffs.

‘I was looking forward to making them watch as I killed you myself, but it seems I was too late, and the blood queen beat me to it.’ He crouches and softly sweeps my hair from my face like a lover admiring his sleeping partner. ‘First, they take you from me. Then they snatch Thalia, wherever she is.’ He looks around, scanning the area with very little care to see if he may spot her. He returns his focus back to me. ‘Then they bring the most powerful witch ever to exist back to life, leaving you for dead in the process. When I saw them taking you from their castle unconscious, I just had to follow. I was never going to miss whatever misery they were planning on putting you through.’ He withdraws his sword and takes a moment to admire the steel. ‘I’m going to keep your head on my mantel. Now, I get to keep you forever. And the coven will know that I killed the blood witch and that I, and I alone, saved them all from annihilation.’ He grips my hair and rests his sword at my throat. ‘They will worship me.’

I scream in sheer rage and lunge for him. He will not claim my body like this. He will not hack me up.

But when I grab him, his eyes widen.

No longer am I stood above him as a spirit, but I'm back in my own body. It’s my very real hand around his throat. I feel his warm skin like it’s fire. I feel his pulse hammering away under my fingers. I hear his heartbeat as if it were in my ears.

‘Not… possible…’ he gasps, clawing at my hand. ‘You’re… dead!’

Impulse takes over. The sound of his heartbeat. The warmth of his skin. It calls to me. It screams.

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