Page 90 of Shadow Master
A boot connected with my ribs, flipping me onto my back.
Laramir stared down at me. “The battleground is no place for a woman.” He kicked me again.
Fuck. I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t catch my—
Thud.
Pain radiated through me.
My blade? Where was my blade? I swept my hand across the earth, looking for it.
“This?” Laramir held it out to me. “It won’t help you.” He threw it aside and drew a dagger from the holster at his waist. “I’ll make it quick, Shadow Master.” His lip curled in disgust as he leaned down toward me.
I stared into his muddy brown eyes and saw myself reflected there. “Fuck you.”
The blade kissed my throat and drew a hot line from left to right. The scent of blood filled my nostrils.
My blood.
Laramir smiled, and then he was gone. Hit by a hurtling shadow with gray-tinged skin and emerald eyes.
“No. Oh, god.”
Brady’s voice. But not Brady.
The sun wasn’t down yet. It wasn’t …
A hand on my throat. “Heal. You must heal.”
Too late. Too deep. Too weak. But the words were a gurgle.
This was death.
Arms hauled me up against a chest. Brady’s chest. I looked up into his face. Into Lugh’s eyes and spoke to Brady. I love you. I love you so much.
Could he see it? Could he see my love from inside?
Something hard pressed to my chest. Uncomfortable, stopping me from drifting. The talisman … Yes, annoying thing.
Why was it hot?
Why was my body hot?
“Oh, my …” Lugh said. He smiled widely. “Oh, my …”
And then shadows were rushing over me, warm and healing. They wrapped around Lugh, sweeping across his face and binding us together.
My throat prickled, and then I could swallow again. “What? What’s happening?”
Lugh cradled me and kissed my forehead. “We found it, Indigo. We found the power. It was inside you all along. Thank you.”
And then he was gone, and Brady was looking down at me. His jaw clenched, and he adjusted his hold on me and spun me so my back was pressed to his chest. He wrapped his arms around me and held me tight.
“Close your eyes, Indigo. Close your eyes and let go,” he said.
Carnage reigned in front of us. Death paraded, sweeping across the earth.
I closed my eyes.
