Page 67 of All's Fair in Lion and War
“Vraka, the—!” The male shouting was cut off by the crack of a rifle shot.
Then another shot came. And another.
Rivian crouched and crawled over to the magick-bender. He yanked her against his chest and stood up, using her as a shield against the bullets. “We’ll see how careful they’re being, hmmm?” He walked backward up the hill and away from Lorelei. Didn’t say a word. Didn’t touch her. He probably thought she was dead already.
She almost was.
It was a battle to keep her eyes open. But she fought through the fatigue. She kept her gaze on Saul. She reached for the thin bond between them. There wasn’t much, but it was there if she looked.
She wished there was more. She wished she could tell him how much she appreciated his kindness. How much she appreciated him not pressing the mating. How much she wanted to get to know him better and fall in love with him. How much she wanted a chance.
It was too late now, but at least her heart had made that choice. If they got out of this, somehow…if they survived. She wouldn’t wait. She’d tell him she wanted to fall in love with him, that she already cared about him immensely.
The two men holding Saul dropped him on his face in the snow and ducked for cover, leaving them both completely unattended and in the dark.
Saul groaned and pushed himself toward her, using one leg at a time to shove his upper body across the packed snow between them. “Lorelei?” His voice was soft like a caress, but also laced with worry. “Are you awake?”
“Mmmm.” She tried to open her mouth, but there was so little air and so much blood in her mouth. She nearly choked just making the small noise she managed.
“My sweet,shuarra. I have failed you.”
No. No, you haven’t.She wanted to yell at him that this wasn’t his fault.
It was Rivian.
Rivian was the one who caused all the pain.
He rolled his body until he was next to hers on the snow. He wasn’t much warmer, but it was better than being alone.
She wanted to reach out and touch him. Wanted to memorize what his scruffy face felt like before Rivian’s fists had chewed it up, but she had to settle for leaning against Saul in the pitch black, listening to the gunfire, wondering if the next breath would be her last.
Both their arms were wrenched behind them and tethered so tightly that their lions couldn’t have gotten out without enduring horrific joint damage.
“Over here! I see them!”
Lorelei never thought she’d be so happy to hear that tiger’s voice.
Liam’s gravelly shout was next. “Fucking hell. They both look like they went through a fucking meat grinder.” He knelt next to her and put two fingers against the vein in her neck. “She’s got a pulse. What about him?”
“It’s weak, but I can hear them both.”
“He has two hearts?” Liam’s voice rose, disbelief growing with each syllable.
“No, I meant can hear both of their hearts.”
“You can hear heartbeats? Just being next to them?”
“Yes, we all can.” Tor sliced through the ropes around Saul’s arms and Liam did the same with hers. Except Saul started to move his arms and she couldn’t feel that hers were even still attached.
Blood rushed back into the limbs, burning like she’d been dipped in hot oil. She moaned and tried to roll over, but only succeeded in coughing up more blood.
“How many bones are broken?”
“Ribs.” Saul coughed and climbed to all fours.
“Don’t shift, there are a lot of dragons out there shooting and they know what you look like as a person and what you smell like overall, but at the end of the day, you look like the enemy.”
“He has Novik’s mate. Rivian took her.” Saul’s voice showed his concern.
