Page 180 of A Crown of Tears and Treason
Finally, Zandyr’s sword slashed once more, bringing another pile of ash to the ground.
No sooner had he sheathed it, he was at my side. I tried to look up at him, I did. But the haze was consuming me.
I couldn’t see. I could barely breathe.
But I felt.
His strong arms wrapping around me.
His relieved sigh as he took all of me in.
His clean, woodsy scent that smelled like home and safety.
“I’ve got you,” he whispered against my temple, crushing his lips against it. “You’re safe.”
“The others,” I mumbled, barely coherent. “Goose, Leesa, Adara, Zorin.”
“Safe, all of them.”
He pulled me gently to his chest, as if to feel my heart beat and convince himself that I was alive.
Bloody, scratched, scared, but alive.
His palms caressed my cheeks. I tried so hard not to think of the blood he was wiping away.
“What did they do to you?” his whisper was laced with an ice-cold ire. “I shouldn’t have killed them so fast. They didn’t suffer enough.”
Let them. Let them pay for what they’d done. To me, to my parents, to countless others.
“My cousins…”
“They’re warned and safe.”
Relief coursed through me so hard and fast, tears stung my eyes.
He hooked one arm underneath my knees and lifted me into his arms.
Each movement was careful, slow, so at odds to the vicious, murderous whirlwind he’d been only a few seconds ago. “Let’s go home before the beast decides it wants dessert and slithers toward us.”
As soon as he cradled my limp body to his chest, a sense of calm took over me. All the exhaustion I’d been fighting so hard finally enveloped me.
And I let it.
Because I knew I was safe in Zandyr’s arms.
Chapter
Fifty-Eight
EVIE
“Why is there a dead woman in my kitchen?” The longer I looked at the body laid down on the stone slab, the more my skin crawled.
She was me. She looked like me, at least.
Dressed in that golden dress she’d ripped off me, with the same mousy brown hair, and the short nails. A perfect replica.
She lay there, serene as my own face could never be, especially not after last night.
