Page 152 of Centaur Bolt

I can, and I will. I will not let this beat me.

A mental sigh rippled through my mind, but he said nothing more.

As the first tentative rays of dawn filtered through my windows, I was still there. At my table.

Everything I created, however, was of Riley.

53

Riley

The last Sabre passed through the gate.

In the belly of the night, the academy sat in silence. The lone Bellati standing guard, and the female Sabre with her little girls, were the only ones left, other than me.

Holding the hands of her children, she approached me.

“Cody told me you’re the Jumper.” She gave me a welcomed smile. “I’m Kitani. This is Caty. And Alyssa.”

“My name is Riley.”

“Can you Jump us somewhere?” one of the girls asked.

I sketched up a smile of my own. “All out of juice, sorry.”

Kitani assessed me and then glanced back to the gate. “I’d rather be with them,” she said. There was no mistaking the longing in her voice.

“Hard to be left behind,” I agreed.

One corner of her lip lifted. “Yeah. I lost the draw this time. Ryan got to go with Cody, not me.”

“They are both your mates?” Too late, I realized that might be an indelicate question.

But she beamed. “Oh yes. And a handful.” She swung her arms and looked down at the girls. “Back to bed, you two. Nice meeting you, Riley.”

There were only a few hours of night left, I judged, but I guessed if my mates were heading off to a battle, I’d wake the kids to say goodbye, too.

After she left, the silence in the meadow was deafening. The Bellati glanced my way so many times that I vacated the bench and put the tree trunk between me and him. The grass was cool and slightly damp beneath my butt.

Fang crept out from where she’d been hiding under my hair. Her fuzzy legs tickled my cheek, and as she stared up at me with her beady little eyes, I got the feeling she was hungry.

Moments later, I crawled around beneath the tree, until I thought to lift a few stones, and found three wormy things that I offered to her. I was a bit startled by the sticky tongue shooting out to nail them, although she had to get within inches of them to do so.

Snack accomplished, she curled up on my shoulder and vibrated. I found it soothing, so I closed my eyes and let my thoughts drift.

Rage. It swept through and consumed me, and it had only one possible outlet.

The men facing me were a well-armed and vicious-looking lot, but I ran right into them. My tailspike sliced one clear in half, while I thrust my talons deep into the body of another.

My eyes snapped open. Had I been dreaming? But then I was swept up again…

The sword ran me through. The mercenary’s eyes nearly popped out of his head when I ignored it and swept my tailspike through his neck. I wrapped my talons around the hilt and yanked it free. Grunted as I did so, and blood jetted from the wound, but I barely felt the pain. And by the time I rammed my talons deep into another, the bleeding had stopped.

Havoc. I trembled with the vivid images—it was as though I was inside his body, sharing everything he endured. I was aware of not only those, but of the fierce joy he experienced when his rage, and his inner monster, were set free. I’d glimpsed it from afar, but seen like this—

What was inside him, was terrifying.

Was it the bite that had done this? Through his eyes, I caught images of the battle going on around him, but he fought alone. The wounds he received were horrific, but he barely felt them, and they didn’t slow him down. Not one bit.

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