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The attention was refocused on Aria. This time, I tried valiantly to get in her head. I wanted her to look at me. To see me.
“You may begin.”
The executioner bowed at the waist at the command from the High Priestess. I locked eyes briefly with Elias Olskin, and sucked in a harsh breath at the anger in his eyes, at the remorse. He didn’t support this—I could see that clear as day. I hoped my expression said everything I thought about him sitting there and doing abso-fucking-lutely nothing while my mate was about to slaughtered like an animal.
I didn’t care that he didn’t support their decisions. I cared that he was still letting them happen. He was a damned coward, and I was making sure he understood that with my gaze.
Where the hell were Johnny and Marilyn?
The executioner’s blade sang as he whipped it out of its holster. It was massive, and the fact that he handled it with only one hand was impressive.
“Bow your head, half–blood,” he instructed, his voice like booming thunder, similar to what I imagined the harbinger of death would sound like.
As was custom, he donned all black attire from head to toe. Even his face was wrapped in black cloth, except for his eyes. Dark gloves covered his hands and thick-soled boots coated his feet.
Even from here, I could see the way Aria shook. Her entire body seemed to vibrate as she bowed her head, turning so she faced me.
I wouldn’t survive this. Whether it would be because of the bond snapping or because of a broken heart, I wasn’t sure, but I just wouldn’t survive her death.
And neither would a single Council member, my father included. If I was going down, so was he and the rest of them.
The executioner lowered the claymore so that the blade tapped the back of her neck, and my brain stopped working entirely.
I lost complete control of myself. In the seconds before I shifted, the world slowed to a crawl—I saw my father’s mug and the satisfaction warping it as the chains holding me snapped like twigs. I felt Aria open the bond at that exact moment, her words filtering through my consciousness while the executioner lifted the claymore above his head.
I wish we had more time, she said, her voice like a soothing balm on my soul, like the whisper of the breeze in the leaves of the trees.Be good, Sariel.
The world resumed.
The executioner blade lowered, and I succumbed to my blind rage.
9
BIG ESCAPE
Aria
Death hurt.
I obviously couldn’t confirm if this was the way it wassupposedto feel, because I’d never done it before. Die, I mean.
I felt like I shouldn’t be surprised by the pain, since I did, in fact, previously have a claymore courting the hairs on the back of my neck not even thirty seconds ago. Somehow, my experience did not match up with those popular articles about people with near-death experiences feeling peaceful or being in the warm embrace of their savior.
Unless… unless I was going to hell.
Because that would also explain why death felt like it was suffocating me, squeezing all the air from my lungs.
Honestly, this was getting a little cumbersome. I never thought that dying would be this dramatic.
“-ria!”
And loud. Why was it so loud?
“Aria!”
My eyes snapped open when I recognized my name being called.
My vision swam, but I could vaguely make out reddish hair and a worried expression as I struggled to focus.
