Page 132 of Dream Reaper

Time for what?

To escape. He’s going to cut the tether between us.

Ava went cold all over as her exhausted brain tried to absorb the implications of what that meant.

It means he’s sacrificing himself to set you—and me—free. Dragon’s thoughts had an edge to them, almost a bitterness. He’s dying for us. For you.

Tears burned behind her eyelids, and she shifted her hand so that she could lean forward and press a kiss to Jerrid’s cold jaw. She didn’t want him to die for her! She wanted him to live for her.

Dying was easy.

Living was harder. Picking up the pieces and going forward despite pain, despite difficulties, despite time itself… That was harder. In the end, how you lived meant more than how you died.

Try telling him that, Dragon thought dryly. He’s got his heart set on dying. He thinks he’s being noble.

She didn’t want him to be noble—she wanted him to be alive.

Her glamour flickered, every muscle in her body straining to maintain the barrier. She couldn’t hold out much longer.

Neither can we. I’m going to have to let go soon.

Panic flooded her thoughts, drowning out anything else Dragon tried to say. She wouldn’t give up. She wouldn’t let them give up, not like this. Because there was one thing they hadn’t tried yet. One thing that might make a difference.

She spelled out her instructions to Dragon as clearly as she could, formulating each thought with precision. There couldn’t be any mistakes, not today.

The shadow drifted closer, punching through a small rock and grinding it to pieces as it probed the earth. If it continued down its current path, it would reach them in less than a minute. They were out of time.

She finished spitting out her instructions to Dragon, and she waited for him to respond. He answered with a thick silence.

The ground shuddered beneath them as the shadow drew closer, and Dragon released a resigned sigh into her mind. That’s all it was, a single sigh.

But she knew what it meant.

Grinding her teeth together, she braced for the moment when Dragon would break the tether.

Someone was about to die.

CHAPTER 32

JERRID

Dying was louder than he thought it would be…and it sounded like Dragon.

Jerrid blinked up at the mist and shadow, unable to move, barely able to breathe. The thoughts that barreled into him tasted of spice and dragon fire, bitter with pain he didn’t understand. If this was a shadow, why was he masquerading as a dragon?

Panic flared through his body.

“Why are you back?” he rasped as Dragon landed soundlessly beside him, scattering the mist.

Dragon bared his teeth at him and shook so hard that his scales creaked. She sent me back.

Shades, no.

That meant she was out there unprotected…

“I gave you one job to do.” He struggled to make his frozen limbs move, but they were bound to the ground, to the mist. “How could you leave her out there?”

Dragon snarled and snapped his jaws around Jerrid’s shoulder, yanking hard. Jerrid’s body slid through the mist.