Page 49 of Cursed Shadows 4

Now, I am stuck in a whole other way.

I am stuck between saving myself—and helping Ridge.

I don’t move.

I just watch, frozen.

The dokkalf lurches at Ridge.

Ridge stumbles back, his footing uneven.

Beneath his brown boots, foliage slips and skids, and he loses his balance. He topples over—and his spine crunches on a jagged boulder.

I cringe.

Fingers gripped onto the split tree, my gloves wrinkle around my tensing hands.

Ridge rolls onto his front. He scrambles to his feet—and my mind is screaming at him,get up, get up, get up.

But the dokkalf is quick to close the distance.

He plunges the knife into Ridge’s side.

A guttural breath shudders through me.

I feel the horror slackening my face.

I can’t shake the sudden swell of guilt that swallows me. That I am just as responsible for that knife in his side.

Because I hide.

My teeth bare in pure, unfiltered reluctance.

No, no, no, no.

But not even I can stop myself.

I stagger around the split, my boots scuffing louder than their fight—and I manage the lamest distraction I’ve ever conjured up.

“Hey!”

Heat flushes my cheeks, hot.

The dokkalf looms over Ridge, the hilt of the blood-soaked knife firm in his gloved grip, the blade buried deep in Ridge’s flesh. Tension ripples through him, stilling him.

Ridge throws a wild look at me. Nothing less than absolute shock widens his lilac eyes.

Slowly, the dokkalf turns his chin to his shoulder. His short lashes flutter, his nostrils flare—and he knows exactly who I am.

He pulls back from Ridge. Takes the knife with him. The slicking sound is enough to shudder my spine.

A grunt comes before Ridge slumps, slipping off the boulder. He thuds to the ground. A pained tightness hardens his face, and he aims it right at me.

The dark one turns.

His eyes flare on me.

And I am frozen all over again.

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