Page 104 of Shifting Winds
He shook his head. “No. You have nothing to be sorry about. I’m the one who’s sorry. For being brash and impatient and insisting you do things my way.” He blew out a breath. “I’m an idiot and I promise you if we can get you out, I will never take you for granted. Never again.”
“We still have a lot of things to work out.”
He sighed. “I know, and I don’t care. We’ll work through them. All I want is you by my side. In whatever way I can have you.”
I only had a few minutes before I stopped breathing, the roots inside me moving slowly toward my lungs. Everything below my belly button was blissfully numb.
“I love you,” I whispered. “I don’t know when it happened. I was too busy alternating between craving you and wanting to kill you, but one day I opened my eyes, and I knew that I loved you more than breathing.”
A soft smile. “Who knew you were capable of such pretty words?”
I snorted. “Dying will do that to a girl.”
One sharp shake of his head. “No. I refuse to believe you’re dying. We’ll figure a way out of this. We always do.”
My breath was coming in short gasps, the roots pulling me all the way to the ground. “If we do, I reserve the right to kick Ethan’s ass.”
“Garrett has him.” A savage grin crossed his lips. “We plan on holding him for a while.”
“Your Lords are falling like flies.”
“Good,” Caelan snarled. “Let them fall. Who has need of a Council if they play games like this?”
“Where’s Thorvin?” He’d disappeared just as Titania was dying.
“No idea, but I don’t care right now.”
“It wasn’t his fault. Titania had him under some form of mind control. He couldn’t help himself.” Thorvin appeared as horrified as I was.
“I’ll deal with Thorvin later.”
I turned my cheek as my face touched the ground, barely able to get a tiny bit of air. “I love you,” I whispered one more time.
“Stay with me,” Caelan begged. “Evie, please.”
But I could fight no longer. The ground opened under my body, sucking me under and straight into the burning, beating heart of the World Tree.
Chapter
Thirty-Two
CAELAN
Ihad no idea how long I sat on the ground staring at the place where Evie sank into the earth and disappeared. The sun had peeked above the clouds some time ago, casting a cheerful pink light across the sky. And still I sat, hoping against all hope she’d appear and tell me this was all some horrible joke.
She was unhinged enough to pull something like that off, and it only made me love her more.
But when the sun finally rose, and the temperatures warmed slightly, and the only sign Evie had ever been there was the depression of where her body had been absorbed into the ground, I knew this nightmare was real.
I bowed my head and buried my face in my hands, a mournful howl tearing from my throat to shatter the quiet morning.
It wasn’t long before a heavy hand dropped onto my shoulder, and Rowan sat down beside me.
“I can’t go back,” I rasped. “Evie—she’s?—”
“I know,” Rowan said. “The tree has…changed.”
I turned a hopeful look his way, but the other Lord shook his head. “There’s no sign of her, but I feel her magic soaking the area.”
