Page 115 of Heart of Dawn
A mightier wind battered the downs, the raindrops wet punches against my body as the storm intensified. Thunder boomed in the heavens as if there were an earthquake in the sky. Flashings of lightning painted everything a vibrant violet.
“We have to keep moving!” James’s voice carried a little squeak.
“Miko?”I said.
Nothing.
“Miko?”
Dunstable Downs quaked, the ground bursting open, the end of Dawn not over yet. Pink smoke and goo and chaos tore out of the ground, the area around the entrance beginning to soften.
Goodness, this entire space might end up collapsing.
The pack didn’t hang around.
“Come on!” James galvanized everyone into a hasty flight. “The town is this way!”
Halfway into the mad dash, the downs collapsed, chasing us toward Dunstable itself.
Stars only knew how I didn’t pass out from the constant attacks of terror from the incredible booming and shaking ground, faced with the prospect of my final breaths. But I held it together, determined to see Miko wake up again.
A cloud of dust mushroomed into the sky behind us, smothering the view. From somewhere beneath, a series of explosions reverberated through the ground.
We’re not going to make it…
The speed of the collapse closed in on us, a beast of death to suck us into the depths.
At least Dawn was dead. At least the world might stand a chance to heal.
“I love you, Miko. I love you so much.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
ORION
The collapsing stopped mere feet away from us, the cloud of smoke sucked downward into the crater.
That lovely landscape had been transformed, now resembling an impact sight from a meteor. Or at least the kind I’d seen in films. No trace of Dawn showed itself. Not a single hint of pink, only the clouds of smoke and ashes floating into the sky.
It was over. It was really over.
“Put me down please,” I said to Cate.
She did, holding on to me as my legs gave out from under me.
“Let’s get you healed,” Basil tried to suggest.
“Miko first. You have to help him.” I crawled to my mate as Paige laid him on the wet grass. “Miko, please. You can’t leave me…” The tears came hot and fast, a kernel of grief forming painfully close to my heart. “I… I can’t… I can’t be in this world without you.”
Basil looked him over. “I’m not sure he will make it. The injury is?—”
“Don’t you say!” I snapped.
“Orion, I?—”
“Don’t you say anything until he draws breath.” All sense of reason left me. And it could stay in the ether. “He has to live. He has to…” I howled, a vessel for heartache and agony. “He has to live!”
My cry burned my lungs, tearing my vocal cords. The sobs came heavy and fast. My tears were an uncontrollable, endless downpour.
