Page 128 of Burdened Bonds
Not again! Not again!
“Rhi!”
A voice in my head. A hand at my shoulder.
“Rhi, stay with us.”
Stone.
“Can you hear me?” he says, inside my head.
“He’s gone,” I say, unsure if I’m speaking out loud, the despair seeping through every part of my body. “Renzo’s gone.”
“You can save him, Rhi.”
Save him?
I grab hold of the world with both my hands and force it to stop spinning. It comes to a screeching halt and then I’m back in the cold, silent kitchen with the body of my mate lying lifeless by my side.
“Save him?” I murmur. “Me?”
“Yes, Rhi,” Azlan says. “You know what to do,” he hesitates, “if you want to.”
I stare down at the assassin’s face. I know he’s committed hideous crimes. I know he’s killed and tortured and maimed for fun. I know a man like him should pay for his sins and maybe giving his life to save us all was the ultimate atonement. Perhaps that is justice.
Perhaps I don’t give a shit!
I crawl forward, resting my hands above his heart and staring down into those empty eyes – the green one and the brown, staring straight back up at me, unseeing. Beneath my palm, his usually strong heart lies dormant, silent, waiting, and his face isn’t frightening anymore. I see the boy he was. The lost boy. The boy without a family, without a home.
I let myself fall into his eyes and let my magic fall with me into his body, curling around his heart, caressing and cradling it, willing it to beat again. My magic seeps into his veins, binds into his being.
I give him my magic – just like Azlan gave me his – and I save Renzo Barone’s life – just like Azlan did mine.
And in doing so, I seal the fated mate bond between us – permanently, irreversibly, forever.
Beneath my fingers, his heart murmurs, the faintest of twitches. Then another and another until it’s thudding against his ribs. He sucks in a lungful of air, his eyes focusing in on my face.
For a heartbeat, he simply stares.
Then he smiles. He smiles like someone who just won the lottery.
“Fuck me, little rabbit,” he laughs, “I fucking died.”
And I fall backwards onto my behind and sob with relief into my hands.
49
Rhi
I guesssomeone wraps a blanket around my shoulders and forces a cup of something strongly alcoholic into my hands as Pip curls up by my side. With shaking hands, I lift the rim to my lips and tip back my head. The amber liquid stings my nose, before hitting my lips, making me cough as it slides down my throat, warming my gullet.
I let the alcohol seep through my veins, calming my racing heart and my quivering limbs, and then I lower my cup and find Winnie attempting to look Renzo over for injuries, although he’s resisting every attempt she makes, still a mile high from his brush with death. Helping her, with a look of extreme trepidation on his face, is Trent.
“Trent?” I gasp.
He spins around and grins at me. “Hey Rhi.”
“When did you get here?”
