Page 99 of Ravenrose

The last surviving raider freezes, his gaze snapping back to his fallen buddy. He takes one glance between Ayer and the body of his friend before he turns, high-tailing it for the tree line.

He nearly makes it, too. Ayer waits until he’s nearly reached the tree line before his arrow takes him in the back of the head.

Silence falls.

It’s just Ayer and me.

He starts toward me, but I inch backward—moving closer toward the river. The icy spray of the wild water hits my cheek.

My heart pounds violently in my chest as he quickly closes the distance, slowing as he draws closer. I still don’t know what Kovaria wants from me—why they kept me alive. Wherever this journey through the Wyldewood ends, it ends soon.

I’m alive for a reason. Purpose or pleasure—I don’t know yet. But I don’t want to find out.

I steal a glance back at the river raging below. Water crashes through the narrow gorge in a frothing wall of white, hurling itself over jagged boulders with enough force to shake the earth beneath my boots. The current tears at everything in its path, the sound of it nearly deafening this close.

I can’t swim.

I turn back.

Ayer has reached the bottom of the hill now, closing the distance between us with long, purposeful strides.

My gaze darts back to the river. Then to him.

The river.

Ayer.

The river.

His pace slows, understanding flashes across his face, and his eyes go wide. “No!”

I can barely hear the word over the crashing sounds of the water.

He promised me death. With Ayer, death is certain. An inevitability.

But this way… I look back once more at the raging water below.

I can choose.

“Rowan—” The sound of my name in his rough voice pulls my eyes back to his.

For one suspended heartbeat, neither of us moves. Then he reaches toward me, his mouth opening.

But I don’t wait to hear whatever order will follow. He won’t be able to use me, and my brothers will be safe. I make my choice, stepping backward.

For the briefest instant, there is nothing beneath my feet, and it’s as if I’m flying. Wind tears through my hair, stealing the scream from my throat as the river rises to meet me. The roar swallows everything: the pounding of my heart, Ayer shouting my name, even my own thoughts.

Then—

The river hits me.

Or maybe I hit it.

The impact is brutal, the freezing water knocking every ounce of air from my lungs. Water crashes over me with the force of a battering ram, driving me deep beneath the surface, darkness swallowing me whole.

Chapter 44

ROWAN