Wren’s jaw clenched, her grip shifting on the rifle.
Shouts erupted from the tree line, boots and paws thudding against earth, familiars snarling and snapping. They were closing in.
“Please,” Avery begged.
Wren’s rifle trembled. “I can’t, I’m sorry.”
Pollen burst from the meadow, spiraling up in thick golden clouds. For one suspended moment, it looked almost gentle, just pollen drifting on the wind, catching the moonlight.
Avery just smiled. “I told you not to piss her off.”
Then the world exploded into gold. The air turned thick and shimmering, pollen so dense it choked the light and obscured the view of the approaching enforcers. The dragon inhaled deeply, nostrils flaring wide, drawing the pollen deep into its lungs. Its eyes flooded black, pupils swallowing the color whole.
Ohfuck. Was she about to get fucked again? Had she ever read dragon smut? She made a mental note to revisit it later. The only fucking thing she needed to do right now, though, was fucking run.
“Witches,”a deep and furious voice said into her mind. Wren stilled as if she had heard it too, all the blood draining away from her face. The beast roared so hard the ground shook. It was the dragon’s voice. And it was a goddamn shifter.
“Time to go, kitten.”Felix’s voice came into her mind.
Avery didn’t stick around to find out. That was a Wren problem now.
Gunfire cracked behind her, bullets hissing past her head, thudding into the ground and spraying up clods of wet dirt.
She ran for Felix in the distance. Where the fuck were they going to go?
Bullets continued to ring out around them. Behind them were a hundred enforcers and whatever the fuck Wren’s dragon had become. Ahead was nothing but cliffs and the ocean. She had understood why the goddess had brought her here now. But was she going to actually help them get away? Surely she wouldn’t be that helpful.
The enforcers pressed forward, their familiars coming up behind them as shots rang out. They ran as far as they could, stopping just at the edge of the cliff, rocks falling away at their feet. Felix threw up a wall of shadow, but a single bullet threaded through the darkness. Avery saw it tear through the shadows, saw it embed itself in Felix’s chest with athunk.
The scream that tore from her was no sound a living being should make. It didn’t even sound like her.No.
The shadow wall collapsed, like a curtain falling. On the other side, Callum kneeled with a rifle.Motherfucker.Avery didn’t think. She didn’t need to. Blind fury overtook her, her shadows bursting out of her at a speed nothing could keep up with. In an instant, they found their target. They wrapped around Callum’s throat and squeezed. Squeezed until the fucking light faded from his eyes. Consequences be damned.She was never coming back to this wretched island unless they fucking buried her here.
When she turned back, Felix wobbled, clutching his chest, and fell off the cliff.
Thirty-Six
Felix
Felixnever really believed in Anawn. But the only way he could describe what he was seeing was an angel.Hisangel. Avery.
His vision went in and out as he looked at her fading away.God, she is so beautiful.
Pain laced every breath he took, but it was eased by even just the sight of her. He wished he could pause time, just so he could have this moment just a little bit longer. To look at her, to hold her, toloveher.
What a cruel world this is, to rip love from him just when he had found it.
Maybe in the next life, little witch.
Thirty-Seven
Avery
“Jump!”The word threaded through her head. She didn’t know where it came from. Didn’t care. Didn’t stop to question it. She followed it. Jumping after Felix into the dark abyss.
It was funny. She never thought she would literally be falling for him.
The drop had her stomach lurching into her throat. Somehow, she wasn’t anxious. Her mind stilled as the wind screamed past her ears, tearing at her clothes and hair. She fell, and fell and fell. So close to Felix that she could almost reach out and touch him.
