Page 103 of Curse of Thorns
The darkest of the three collides with me; his touch burns like hellfire, sending my whole body into convulsions. I scream but manage to send a jolt of magic to toss him back. He hisses in pain, but the next grasps my throat in his greedy hands. My iron knife slices through his limbs, but he’s replaced by the next. One after the other. Slap, a punch, slice, all defended one after the other, but I’m not fast enough. My magic dissolves one into ash. It’s easier than I expected to fell him but now their every blow comes faster and stronger, and every defensive move comes slower and weaker.
Then, it’s her scream that fills my ears.Caelynn.
Everything in my body reacts, and it hurts so much worse than anything the wraiths could do to me. She’s dying.
Caelynn is dying.
The wraiths attacking me seem to have the same thought, and they rush to where my brother stands over her limp body, blood pooling at his smoky legs.
No.
I pool my energy into one blast and let my rage be my guide as I blast it from my body like a grenade. The wraiths hiss in agony, and I sprint past them toward her.
My mate. My enemy. My heart, dark and broken. But mine all the same.
Another wave of magic knocks Reahgan from her fallen body, and I can’t think anymore. I can only feel the panic coursing through my body.
Not her. Not now. Not like this.
Caelynn’s long eyelashes flutter as I fall to my knees beside her. There is a gaping hole in her stomach oozing black. A hole my brother put there. She wheezes with every breath, her eyes staring straight up into the hazy sky.
She will never leave this place. She will never have hope or love again.
The wraiths scream, their power rumbles the ground beneath her. Her. Mine. Reahgan chuckles but stands between us. More wraiths appear over the mountainside, approaching quickly. Hunting me. Stalking her.
“You did this on purpose,” I say to my fallen mate.
“Rev,” she says.
She keeps doing this. She keeps making these sacrifices—for me. So long ago, she killed my brother and lost her freedom just to save me. She fought battles she shouldn’t have been able to win to save my life in the trials—when I wanted nothing more than to strangle her with my bare hands. She gave up the win for me.
She gave up the chance to see her own kingdom for the first time to help me.
I liked it,her voice rings in my ear. I believed her. But seeing her now. The expression on her face when Reahgan first showed up. The adoration in her dying eyes as she looks at me now. I wanted an excuse to push her away because it was easier.
Easier than this hopeless desperation. Easier than letting her go, knowing she was everything I’d ever desired in a lover. Beautiful and strong and bold and brave.
But I don’t believe her anymore.
I forgave her for a sin I’d thought unforgivable—until she’d used that very thing to push me away. Why did she do that if it wasn’t true?
My stomach twists as my mind leaps to the wraith’s riddle.What is the quest every soul takes up when they enter the Schorchedlands?
“Why do you keep doing this? Choose yourself, just once,” I beg her as I press my hand to her stomach. The black liquid burns my skin.
“I’ll always choose you.” She wheezes.
My fingers flash with warmth, my magic pulsing, already stitching her together from the inside out. Her back arches, her eyes shut, and she lets out a magnificent groan. A moan that heats me from the inside. Dammit, now is not the time to think of her that way.
“You see, your magic acts without your permission,” Reahgan says calmly. I pull my hand away and swallow, glancing back at the scene behind me. Apparently, those three wraiths were no match for my brother. They are all but ash scattered on the ground. But there are more lining the mountain passes, staring down at us. It’s only a matter of time until they join the fray.
Reahgan always was the strongest of us all.
Except Caelynn.
Caelynn was always stronger.
I look down at her, checking her health. Red blood still pours from her open wound, the pain still sketched across her face. But she’ll live, at least for a little while longer. I have time to figure this out first.
