Page 143 of Blood So Brutal

Nobody moved. Nobody spoke. The weight of my words fell on everyone, lacing the air with a thick tension. This was all Era’s plan. All the pain, all the betrayal, all the suffering—it was all so we could end the corruption and evil that flourished here, so we could become who we were truly meant to be.

I was confused before, but not now. I saw it all so fucking clearly now.

“Huntress. Say something. Please.”

Her breath hitched as I reached out and brushed her arm. She looked to where our skin touched then back to my eyes with brows drawn.

“Fuck you,” she mumbled under her breath.

“Wha–”

“Fuck you!” She stepped forward and slapped me in the chest,hard. When she reeled back to do it again, I caught her wrist and yanked her into me, wrapping my arms around her. Fuck, she looked so tired, covered in blood and sweat and tears.

“Fuck you,” she said again, but she relaxed into my body. Her voice broke, tears finally flowing freely down her face to dampen my neck. “Fuck you, Wolf.”

“Careful, Huntress,” I whispered into her hair while I inhaled the blood and sweat mixed with the perfect scent of cherries. “You’re being rude again.”

She pulled back enough to look into my face. “Don’t youeverdo that again. Ever. Do you understand me, Wolf? You are never allowed to die again! You are never allowed to scare me like that again!”

I gripped her face with both hands, swiping my thumbs across her wet face. “Yes, my love. I understand.”

Her hands fell onto my shoulders. She patted me gently before gripping my shirt in both hands like she never fucking wanted to let go.

And then she laughed.

It was broken at first. Weak. But it was a laugh, filled with fear and exhaustion and relief. Then, the few giggles turned into a complete outburst, and before I knew it, I was laughing too. And Jessiah. And Rummy. All of us stood there amidst bodies and ruins, my golden wings spanned out against a backdrop of the rising sun, laughing.

It took hours to gather the bodies of the fallen, and even longer to dig their graves, to pay respect to their losses, every last one of them.

We worked until every single fighter was buried properly in the forest around us.

Something lingered in the air, something foreign and still.

Huntyr didn’t leave my side the entire day. She refused to see a healer, but I was able to heal her with barely even touching her. My magic felt different now, ever since I woke up with those damn golden wings.

It wasn’t until the sun set and the survivors gathered around a massive fire in the center of the kingdom that Huntyr and I could finally talk alone.

She sat on a fallen log beside me, face glowing in the flames. I draped an arm around her shoulder and pulled her close.

“Tell me what you’re thinking,” I whispered against her messy curls.

She relaxed against me, resting her head on my chest. “You’re the one who died and broke our bond. You don’t get to know what I’m thinking at all times anymore.”

I let out a low warning growl I knew she could feel. “Where’s the fun in that?”

“It’s more fun this way,” she teased. “It means you have to guess.”

“Fine.” I let a finger trail down her back. “You’re thinking about how relieved you are that you’re free now. You’re feeling overwhelmed. You have no idea what to do next. You’re exhausted.”

She lifted her face to mine and replied, “Damn, you’re good. Maybe the bond is still intact after all.”

I sighed. “I wish that was true. I miss feeling you all the time. It became second nature.”

“Yeah, now you won’t know when I’m pissed off at you.”

I smiled, gaze flickering to her perfect lips. “I have a feeling you’ll let me know.”

She giggled, and fuck, I didn’t realize how much I’d missed the sound of that. She nuzzled back into me, wrapping her armsaround my waist as silence fell over us, the crackling of the fire taking over.

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