Page 15 of Too Dangerous To Die

"Tell me the price," I snarl.

Another laugh, this one more amused.

"You would pay it? How foolish!"

I do not hesitate. "Yes."

Silence.

Suddenly,the ground splits beneath me.

A pulse ofraw energy surges upward, flowing intoher, into me.The bond between us tightens.

The power iscold and hot all at once, searing through the fraying edges of her soul, stitching her back together with somethingnot entirely mortal.

Nora gasps, a choked,ragged breath.

Her bodyarches against mine, her fingers clutching at my skin as she jolts awake.

I exhale sharply, relief a foreign and unwelcome thing.

She isalive.

But something haschanged.

Her eyes,they are no longer just amethyst.

They flicker.

Silver and violet. Light and dark.As if something old now lingers beneath the surface.

I do not know what I have done.

But I know one thing.

She was mine before.

Now, she is something else entirely.

7

NORA

Iwake withhis name on my lips.

The first breath isagony, like drawing in air after drowning. My lungs burn, my chest tight andaching, but the pain is overshadowed by something else—somethingcold and foreign curling inside me.

Magic.

Butnot mine.

My fingers twitch against the damp ground, clawing at the rich, dark soil beneath me as I try toorient myself.Everything feelstoo sharp, too loud.The air hums with power, whispering through the leaves in a language I almost understand.

A shadow looms beside me.

I know it is him before I even turn my head.The bond pulses, heavy and unrelenting, tugging me toward him like an invisible thread wrapped tight around my ribs.

I lift my gaze, and Rhaegar isthere.

---