Page 174 of Cursed Shadows 4

Dare runs for us. I almost don’t recognise him, not through all the blood smeared all over his face… spilling freely down his front. Blood, a reddish brown… His, I fleetingly realise.

But then he’s gone.

A watery blink, and he’s swept away in a gust of shadowy winds.

A scream rattles me—and I propel myself through the rushing air.

I just manage to throw my body on top of Daxeel’s, as though I can protect him from the gathering of shadows high above, the shadows that slither and skitter like morke—

A scream rips through me.

The portal has its talons digging into me.

My hand clutches Daxeel’s wrist just as I’m yanked from the snow. I reach out my other, my scream lowering into a gravelly groan as I strain to grab onto his belt.

Lashes shut on his eyes, he is utterly gone from the realm of the awake, deeply lost in unconsciousness.

My fingers loop around his belt. Barely.

The strain is shown in my bared teeth, the hollow, gravelled sound clawing through me as I try to grab a fistful of the belt.

The pull of the portal drags at me, stretches my muscles and has my legs screaming in protest.

I could let go of Daxeel and be swept away.

But I am not so sure he is alive, that he will follow—and I can’t leave him here. After what I did, even if it was for the light, even if I don’t regret it… I can’t just let him stay here to rot on the mountain.

My fingers curl around the belt.

I get a grip, not a solid one, but enough that I can hold on.

My legs are lifted now, all the way, my head pooling with blood as the portal yanks and yanks and yanks at me.

Packed with pure muscle, Daxeel doesn’t so much as lift an inch off the snow. He’s impossibly heavy, even just to keep a hold onto. His dead weight pulls my arms like taffy, and a horrid cry warps my insides as my fingers slip from his belt…

The cuff of his sleeve catches on my palm. The ribbing slides over my hand like a wet rock, and I cry out just as the portal wrenches me away—

Away from Daxeel.

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I spiral.

Whirling through the cold and dark air, the Cursed Shadows batter around me—being sucked into the portal, too.

The blood in my head is pulsing. Ifeelit in my ears,thump, thump, thump. The weight of my lashes starts to fall over my blurring vision.

All I see before darkness steals me entirely is the mountain in the distance, where I was standing moments ago, where I cried and bled and almost died. It grows so small, until it’s gone entirely, like it never existed, like none of this ever happened…

But it did happen.

The Cursed Shadows survived it.

They return to Comlar with us.

Mother accepted Daxeel’s sacrifice.

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