AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“No,” she told him, making sure her next words made it through the intensifying storm, “I’m not leaving you. I willneverleave you.”
Kai met her eyes, and the look in them broke her heart. It was grateful, terrified even. “I don’t know what this is,” he choked out. “I almost hurt Rhydian. I could barely stop it.” His eyes drifted upwards, trailing the sky, searching for something before the rain became too much, and he dropped his head.
The winds became impossible to bear, the storm reaching a new crescendo, so ferocious Kai hugged her to him, shielding her head, trying to protect her body as who knew what pelted against her skin. Isla held herself closer, breathing hard, doing all she could to shelter him, too.
The lightning scored the sky, cleaving the darkness like the claw of a mighty beast, whipping so brightly she could still see behind her closed lids, tucked into Kai like this. She could still hear it echoing long after it had finished. And deep within that echo, blended into this surging symphony, a low cry of a violin.
The cacophonous sounds hollowed, and Isla’s breathing slowed as she held onto Kai and endured that tap, tap, tapping again. Again.Againuntil finally, something cracked.
The violin’s cry became a melody that spoke to her soul in a way that nothing much else had but the man clutching her, music that held the answers to all things, and like a serpent, an essence slithered its way into her consciousness.
“Warrior Heart.”
That voice and a phantom touch to her back felt like icy, dagger-like claws trailing down her spine.
The melody exploded into an orchestra as the storm gave one last strike with all its might, and Kai gripped her tighter as the world shuddered, groaned, pushed, pulled, teetered, bent, andbroke.
And then, everything stopped.
CHAPTER17
ADRIEN
“What the ever-lovingfuckwas that?”
Adrien peered out into the calming, clearing night from where he and Sebastian squatted within one of many city storefronts, surrounded by a range of personalities. From sobbing children being consoled by parents and the disgruntled elderly to those fascinated by the storm and its ferocity. “I don’t know.”
“I need to find Isla and my dad,” Sebastian said, voice edged with concern as the store’s door flew open, and everyone began spilling outside again.
Adrien followed, marveling briefly at the cracks in the windows as he passed. It was a miracle they hadn’t shattered completely. “Isla’s probably with Kai, and your father is probably with—holy shit.”
Gaping, he lifted his head. The cloud cover had nearly masked it, but the aurora was unmistakable. A rippling of colors, reds, green, whites, blues was breathtaking and unlike anything he’d ever seen in his life.
Unlike anythinganyonehad seen, apparently.
Slowly, everyone ventured out of their safety spots, some gasping and pointing, some sobbing and cheering, seeming to view the phenomenon as a blessing—a “blessing” even as the landscape around them lay in tatters. Lanterns with hopes and dreams had been dashed across the land, entirely broken, and vendor stalls had been reduced to rubble, their inventory scattered over the ground and floating in the nearby river.
Adrien found his gaze fixated on the water now, unable to tear it away from the river’s gentle rock, unable to ignore the steady ringing of a boat’s bell. Once, twice—
The frigidness at his neck bit.Hard. And then the darkness tread his body to his wrist again. Pulling,pulling.
Tadumtadumtadumtadum.
Adrien allowed it to lead him and didn’t bother looking where Sebastian had gone.
He wove through the wondering spectators and leapt over debris to the cadence of the shadow’s rapid drumming, using it, using this sense he’d felt earlier to guide him. When he reached the fraction of river no longer bracketed by the stone wall at the landscape’s gentle decline, he slid down its muddy bank until he was just along the water’s edge. The shadow’s pulsing eased.
So silent over here, so remote from everyone else.
Adrien turned and continued along the bank, steadying himself so he wouldn’t slip into the murky drain.
He squinted at something forming in the distance, a stone in his path, maybe, the darkness not doing him a favor to discern it. But then came the smell.
Blood.
Death.
Adrien’s breathing hampered, and he ran forward as the rock became clearer—as it became a torso, limp arms, legs, then a body. He stopped short before it, stumbled…stared. There was so much fucking blood, even with all that had washed into the river down the sediment.
