Page 12 of Too Dangerous To Die

A scream.

Blood spatters across the stone.

I shouldmove.I shouldhelp.But I am frozen, trapped betweenawe and terroras I watch himunleash himself.

This is not just a fight.

This is aslaughter.

The third hunter lunges toward me, blade angled for my ribs.Instinct takes over.

I duck, but I am too slow.

The edgebites into my arm, pain lancing through me. I stumble back, visionblurringfor half a second—too long.

A mistake.

I feel the air shift, the weight of another hunter at my back.

I turn but I'm too late.

The daggerplunges into my stomach.

I inhale sharply.

For a moment, there is nothing. No pain, no fear. Just the sudden, coldshockof it.

Suddenly, there'sfire.

Itburns, radiating outward, spreading through my limbs with a cruel, consumingheat.

I choke on my own breath,my knees giving out beneath me.

The hunter pulls the blade free,a slow, deliberate motion,as if savoring the moment. Igasp,blood pooling between my fingers.

Distantly, I hearRhaegar snarl.

And then he isthere.

I do not see what happens next.

But Ihear it.

The wet, sickeningcrackof breaking bone. The gurgled scream asthe hunter dies.

And thenhands are on me.

Not cruel. Not unkind.

Strong.Unyielding.

"Purna."

Itryto focus. Try to breathe.

The world istilting, my vision fading. But I feel him—his heat, his strength, the crushing weight of the bond pulsing between us.

I blink up at him,barely seeing.His face is blurred at the edges, but his eyes, those molten, unforgiving eyes are clear.

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