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They aren't trying to get away?I feel the color drain from my face.They'rethe distraction.They were only trying to get us to freedom while sacrificing themselves? Those idiots! Why the hell--?
I push backward, using my weight against the boulder to move Rayne, but he’s strong, stronger than I am, stronger than he was before he took Adrik’s body. He holds me so I can barely move. “Let me go!” I struggle and shift and writhe.
“Stop, Ann! They’re warriors. They don’t need to be worried about you while they’re fighting the forces of darkness.” He’s almost shouting at me now.
My anger changes. I hold myself still and feel a strange coolness flow through me. If I keep struggling against Rayne, I'm never going to get away, and with each second that passes, my men are in more danger. All those big warriors... they could easily kill them. But if our enemies have instructions to keep them alive and bring them to the shadow realm, they have a fate worse than death waiting for them there.
Rayne finally relaxes behind me. "If they get away, they'll follow our direction. You'll see this was the right choice. What they wanted."
Unfortunately, I know Rayne too well. It's in his voice. He doesn't think my men will escape. He sees them as already dead.
Angry tears sting my eyes.I need to save my men. Not as a warrior. Just as me. Whatever I can do to help. Please. Please.
Suddenly, I feel it. That strange and unexpected power inside of me. It blossoms, not like something I can physically touch, but almost like a memory. A forewarning of something to come. Hopefully, I can wield the magic without understanding how.
Feeling more confident, I slam my head back into Rayne's nose as hard as I can, then try to escape.
And fail.
A string of curses explodes from his lips, but instead of releasing me, he picks me up and tosses me over his shoulder. “Goddammit, Ann! Stop it.”
I'm shocked, struggling against his rock-solid body as he races with me through the woods.How many times do these idiots have to take off with me? At what point will they stop treating me like a child who needs to be protected and treat me instead like a partner? Someone who can help?
Rayne slows, breathing hard. “They said they’ve lost. They just want you safe, Ann. And you have to know they wouldn't send you away if they thought there was any chance.” He continues walking, brushing vines and weeds out of the way. “They want you to get to freedom. To be safe. If the shadow king gets his hands on you…”
I don’t give a fuck what he has to say. I want to go back now. “If you ever loved me, you’ll take me back.”
He ignores me. “Rayne!” I’m screaming now, pounding his back, jerking my body back and forth, using the strength in my legs to no avail. I’m stuck until I can figure out how to get back to the fighting. How to save the men who mean more to me than anything else in this world or any other.
"I'll never forgive you if I lose them, if I had a chance to help them and you wouldn't let me. This isn't a threat, it's a promise."
His steps slow even more, but he keeps going. Further from the men who need me, even if they don't know it yet.
SIXTEEN
Onyx
The woodsaround us are silent. Ominous. Even the shadow beasts who surround us are quiet. This isn't a win for them. It's a surrender. Almost like a man whose crawled through the desert for days, only to collapse, unable to go further. These beasts, these men, they can't go further. I understand. They don't have a mate to soothe the horrors of battle from their hearts. They've already lost anyone and everyone they've ever loved. Either they've had to kill them in battle, or the people they loved are slaves to the shadow king. Either way, they hit their limit.
It doesn't make me less angry at their betrayal, even though I sympathize with them. All I can be grateful for is that Ann is safe, that she escaped with Rayne, who will die to protect her. If I have to leave this world for the shadow realm, that’s all that matters. That until the Void consumes this world, maybe Ann will have some happiness with Rayne. When the darkness sweeps these lands, all the animals and plants will die, but Ann and Rayne, I imagine, will survive as long as possible.
I only wish I could give her more.
We’re bound once more, being dragged through the forest, taken to the shadow realm and this time, we aren’t breaking free. I look over at Phantom. He’s beaten and bloody. He took the worst of the onslaught that happened after our enemy shadow beasts won. His head hangs as if it’s too heavy for him to lift, but it could be a ploy. At least I hope it's a trick to make them think they have him. It’s why he’s making them hold him under the arms and why he drags his toes in the dirt. Twice they’ve stumbled and twice he’s groaned when they dropped him, not moving until they picked him up.
I just sincerely hope that he's faking it. Or maybe I don't. Maybe he should be out of it when we finally become his father's slaves.
Slade bumps my shoulder.
I look at the tired warrior with his dark hair and dark eyes. He signs, "Sorry." One of the few words he knows.
I'm not sure what to say. I can't even sign back with my hands bound with rope, but I don't accept his sorry, nor can I bring it in me to be nasty to him, so I just look away from him.
In the distance, I swear there's a disturbance. Dusk glances in that direction, but when our eyes meet, he just shakes his head. Some warriors are trying to find Ann still, worried the king won't be happy with just the three of us, even though she's our mate now. But I have a feeling that the disturbance wasn't one of the warriors, but Ann instead. And we don't want to give away her location.
She needs to stay gone. And if Rayne is half the man he thinks he is, he needs to make sure she sees the logic in our decision, even if she doesn't like it.
The last thing she needs is to see what’s going to happen once we’re back in the shadow realm. How their father will force us to shift. How he’ll control us once we do. How we’ll cease to be who we are, even though we’ll always be inside the beast, we’ll always know what we’ve lost, who we are. Until we’re crazy and only he can control what we become.
