Page 174 of Blade of the Nightking

“Go?” I shot to my feet. “We can't go! We just got here!”

"It's a dead end!" he barked, his anger breaking free. "Levinica was wrong. Perhaps three hundred years drowning in her own grief truly did addle her mind. Gods know half the time she didn't even know where she was." His voice caught on the last word. Barely—but I heard it.

It didn’t stop the anger that constricted my chest so tightly I could scarcely breathe.

“Don't you dare,” I snarled, taking a step toward him. “Don't you dare say that about her.”

For the briefest moment, surprise crossed his face. Then it vanished, replaced by an expression so dangerous that I had no doubt it had sent grown men running.

“She was half-crazed,” he hissed. “Some days she scarcely knew her own name. Even before the madness, her visions were wrong more often than they were right.”

“Then why are we here?” I shot back. “Why did you drag us halfway across the Wildlands, chasing her vision, if you never believed her? She saw the Gates. She saw the bond breaking. She saw⁠—”

“We're leaving.”

He reached for my arm, but I wrenched away before he could grab me.

“No.”

His expression darkened. “No?”

“No.”

His hand shot out and clamped around my jaw, forcing my chin up to meet his gaze. “You have no idea what comes out of these woods after dark.”

“I'm not giving up.”

“We need to leave. Now.”

“No!”

His grip tightened. “Don't be a child, Eidra. I'm not about to let you get us both killed chasing one of Levinica's delusions.”

"We need to break this bond!" I couldn't stop the desperation in my voice.

His lip curled. “Trust me, Eidra. There is no one in this world who wants this bond broken more than I do. No one.”

His hand slid down to my arm. His grip turned to iron as he dragged me after him.

I planted my feet and tried to wrench myself free. When that failed, I shoved at his chest with my free hand. It didn't budge him an inch. All it earned me was a warning scowl.

“Stop.”

“No!”

“Eidra—”

“I am not leaving.”

His jaw flexed. He caught my other arm and pulled me against him, hauling me bodily toward the exit.

No.

No, no, no⁠—

We couldn’t leave! I couldn't spend the rest of my life bound to him! And Aedric⁠—

The thought sliced like a knife to the ribs.