Page 7 of The Storm
She laughed, then slapped her hand over her mouth as Balien threw his leg over hers, trapping her beneath him.
“I love you so, Renata.” He kissed her. “Iloveyou. I would have nothing but joy for you, my love. Nothing but peace.”
“You give me joy. You give me peace.” She started humming a song to him, one of his favorites. It was the first song that had left her lips in months.
He closed his eyes. “I do not deserve you.”
Renata felt her unused smile spread.
But that smile died when she heard whispers on the edge of her senses. They were a faint scratching sound, like claws on stone. She clutched Balien’s nightshirt as her heart began to race.
“Renata?”
“They’re here.”
In seconds, thetalesmthat covered his body burst to life with magic.
“Be quiet.” He sprang from bed, slipped on his boots, and reached for his weapons. “I’ll get your father. Stay here.”
His strength could not distract from the growing voices encroaching. Renata covered her ears and bit her lip so hard she tasted blood.
“There are too many,” she whispered. “Too many. Too many. Too many.”
Balien shook her shoulders. “Renata, how many?”
“I can’t tell.”
“How many?” he yelled.
“I can’t— Too many!”
Dozens of clawing minds surrounded them. They were coming like an avalanche, surrounding the house. The useless magic she’d been taught died on her tongue. She was no warrior. As fierce as her mate was, this enemy was too much for him. Too much for her parents. They had been running too long.
She looked at Balien. “I love you. I promise I’ll be brave.”
“No!” he yelled, seeing the resignation in her eyes.
Renata heard the street door crack. She heard her father rushing down the stairs and her mother whispering spells in her bed. Renata saw the wheels turning in Balien’s head a moment before he jumped on the bed, reached for his sword, and plunged it into the rafters. Punching with sheer force and rage, he tore open a hole in the old roof and dragged her up, shoving her through as she heard her father’s soul go silent.
“Run!” he roared. “Renata, you must run!”
Her mother’s voice was gone.
She shook her head. She heard the feet on the stairs. So many of them. Too many.
She couldn’t leave him. She didn’t want to live if he didn’t.
“RENATA, YOU MUST RUN!”
* * *
She had nothing.
Nothing.
Renata hid in a human church for days, willing the Grigori to find her. But because heaven was perverse, they never did. Days passed. Then a week. She considered searching for the nearest scribe house, but Balien had known none of the brothers there. He didn’t trust them. He only trusted those he knew, and he knew none of the scribes serving in Rome.
She left Rome, traveling north, hiding in churches at night.
