Page 86 of Curse of Thorns
She cries out but manages to roll her body over and again. It’ll have to do.
I leap toward the bear, hands pressed to his chest, and just before his claws tear me to shreds, I detonate my magical sphere.
The undead-bear flies fifty feet into the air and lands with a crash that rumbles the ground beneath me.
Birds leap from the trees at least a mile east and flock towards us.
Great. So much for not drawing attention.
At least the bear’s body is crumpled in an unmoving heap, but there’s no telling whose attention we caught with my light show.
I approach Caelynn slowly, heart in my throat but stomach twisting in anger.
She groans and stirs. She looks up at me through stringy blond hair all over her blood-streaked face. Her eyes are dark, eyelashes fluttering. Her energy is nearly gone entirely. Her face pale as death.
“You are going to get us both killed,” I say through gritted teeth.
“Rev,” she says, her voice gravelly, and she winces in pain. “I’m sorry.”
But I don’t dare ask her for what. I’m mad at her as tears well in my eyes. So angry for all the pain she’s put me through, including this moment. Watching her die in front of me would be the greatest torture of my life.
“Don’t you even trust me to be able to take care of myself? You once told me you believed in me.” My head falls back, looking up to the hazy sky. “But then,” I say slower, passion gone. Anger gone. Now, there is only pain. “I suppose that was a lie too.”
I let that sink in for one beat before I look her in the eye. Her mouth is wide open, eyebrows scrunched. Recognition flickers in her eyes.
Will she die if I leave her now? She might. And maybe that would be a good thing. Maybe her death would free me. Maybe it’s better for her too. She can live in these lands as a true wraith instead of only a pretend phantom.
“You are determined to save me, but at what point are you going to realize that I don’t need it? I don’t need you.”
She sucks in a breath, tears filling her eyes.
Her eyes grow wide, and she squirms. I know her well enough to know this expression is not from pain.
She’s scared.
Then, I feel it, the power looming over me. The air trembles around us, the light suddenly sucked from the sky.
I freeze, unable to move.
“No,” Caelynn whispers, and it’s her voice that breaks me from my panic-induced freeze. Slowly, I turn to face our new enemy.
It’s a wraith, almost indistinguishable from the one who befriended Caelynn, except this one’s smoke is lighter, a grey more than black, and there is a white light in his chest.
When he speaks, the ground rumbles beneath him. My knees nearly buckle with the weight of his words.
“Hello, little brother.”
