Skuld. He knew it had to be her. She lifted her hands, sending out a dark miasma of power that morphed into the largest Hollows he’d ever seen.
“Fucking hell. Eiravel!”
“I will kill you,” Skuld promised.
“I will do what I can to ward her. Fight, Kieran, or you will fall here.”
He stabbed at a cat with Wraith as he slashed the throat of another with his shadow blade. Each cut drew blood. Each stab went into a beating heart. Eiravel and Cynes whirled around him, Cynes shooting his arrows with deadly accuracy and Eiravel slicing with his enchanted weapon. Kallan vaulted into the fray, striking at the Hollows as Teague used his voice to push the line back.
“Move to the left!” Cynes yelled, and Heath did so in an instant. Leaping with its jaws open wide, a Hollows took Heath’s place. Cynes fired, and the creature’s head exploded even as Cynes notched another arrow.
“Kallan, keep adding magic to my arrows!” Cynes cried.
“Already on it.”
“Get it off my back!” Eiravel roared, strangling another Hollows that lunged for his throat. Heath ran past, cutting the Hollows on Eiravel’s back with punishing force. The giant cat fell away with a scream. Teague finished it off with a bellow directed at the beast’s head. The Fae men moved as one, ripping through bodies, gaining footing on the blood-slick floor as Skuld screamed her frustration.
“Get to her! Save your Fate.”
Skuld screamed once more, thunder boomed, and the Future Norn was snatched from the room.
Heath didn’t have time to fucking care. He had to get to Asherah.
Chapter Fourteen
Covered in sizzling blood and filled with rage, Heath slammed through the door leading to where his soul knew she’d be.
Asherah. His Foraltae. His future.
He slid across the polished floor, Eiravel and Cynes right behind him. “Guard the door. We’re getting the fuck out of here. Kallan and Teague, find some way to build a portal!”
“On it.”
Heath didn’t care which one answered because he was too focused on the center of the room.
There she rested.
His heartbeat.
His redemption.
Her water-like hair melded with the storming seas around her, whipping around her face. Her lips were pale in real life, her body held in stasis within her only free space. He’d touched her so many times in dreams. Gripped her hips as he sank deep inside her. Heath knew the salty taste of her lips and the cool rush of her touch across his chest.
But those were phantoms, mere impressions of what would be reality.
Asherah’s eyes were closed, her slender fingers crossed over her stomach, her white dress exposing her shoulders and the top slopes of her breasts but covering the rest of her. He forced himself to move slowly, reaching out with his senses to find any threats.
Try as he might, he could only focus on her.
Wraith disappeared in a blast of shadow and he felt the familiar weight as it settled once more on his back.
“Asherah.” His voice was rough, deep with longing.
Look at me, baby. See me. I’m here.
But she didn’t respond.
A soft change in the air signaled her projection coming to stand at his side. She looked up at him with a soft, sad smile.
