Page 25 of Sanctuary of the Shadow
Harrow lit the lantern outside Raith’s tent and ducked inside. It was dark, even with the light. However he’d done it the first time, Raith didn’t light the other lamps. She heard nothing and saw no movement in the tiny space of illumination surrounding her.
“Raith?”
Nothing.
“Raith?” Panic seized her. Was he gone?
Then, a shuffling sound and a muffled groan, instantly stifled.
But Harrow heard it and knew instantly what it was—a sound of pain.
Caution abandoned, she raced to the cage and peered through the bars. A dark shadow on the far side had her running around to the back. He was there, painstakingly sitting up but trying to hide it from her.
Someone had hurt him.
Helpless fury choked her as she reached through the bars to help him. Something warm wet her hand when it touched his chest, and she withdrew her palm to the lantern’s light to see. It was blood.
She gasped. “What happened? Who did this?”
Raith, of course, said nothing. His fiery eyes met hers in the darkness.
Harrow pieced it together anyway. “Salizar.”
She stared at the blood on her hand and at the man behind the bars, and suddenly, she felt the Water rise within her.
“I have to get you out of here,” she whispered as the realization hit like a waterfall crashing overhead. He was in danger. And not just from more beatings.
Her power told her clearly that if she left him here, he would die.
His eyes snapped back to hers. “No, Harrow.”
“I have to.”
“No.”
“You don’t understand, I—” She swallowed, trying to make sense of the feelings of panic and fear for his life that suddenly boiled up inside her like a geyser. This was bigger than her own feelings of protectiveness or the way she’d been so helplessly drawn to him from the moment they met.
This was a matter of life and death.
The Water had led her to him from the start, she realized. He was the source of the premonition she’d had months ago, the person she’d needed to find. The Water had urged her to seek him out and help him, before she’d even known of his existence.
She had every intention of listening to it now.
“No,” Raith said again, clasping the bars on either side of her face and leaning toward her, a firm line drawn between his brows. “It’s not safe.”
His adamant refusal out of concern for her only made her more determined. How could she explain that the moment the Water had spoken, the decision was taken out of her hands? It wasn’t about what was safe for her or what either of them wanted at this point. All she knew was that he was in danger, and it was her duty to help him. The Water had declared it so, and she agreed.
“You don’t understand,” she said again, reaching up to clasp the same bars as him, their hands brushing as she did so. Despite the turmoil inside her, the contact sent tingles up her arms. “I have to do this.”
At their touch, he flinched visibly, but he didn’t pull away. He leaned in closer. “Why?”
So did she. “I just…have to.”
His hands tightened around the bars, causing the veins tracing his powerful arms to stand out, and suddenly, she wasn’t thinking about the Water anymore. Unable to help herself, her gaze followed them up his biceps to the breadth of his shoulders, traveled across his collarbone, and trailed down the line of his pectorals.
When she finally met his eyes again, she knew he was aware of her attention and what it meant. His pupils expanded until the flames were nearly swallowed, turning his eyes fully black save for the thinnest orange ring.
Their faces were so close. She couldn’t blink, and she definitely couldn’t breathe. Her stomach was doing backflips that would put Malaikah to shame.
