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She lifted a hand to my cheek. “For both of us, remember?”
I clutched that delicate, blood-stained hand to my face, willing her to stay, sure that if I held on tight enough, she would live. “No, no, I can’t, not without you. I can’t.”
But her eyes went blank, the brilliant blue fading in a split second as the light inside her went out. The hand against my face went limp. There was a snap in my chest, as though I had a thousand ribs, a million hearts to break, and they all shattered at once. The Bond frayed and tore, twisting out of my body, and I screamed as I clutched her to me, as I scrambled against my chest with my other hand, trying to hold on to something I couldn’t see but was tearing me apart all the same.
She was dead. My beloved, my Bonded.
I roared and raged, shaking her and holding her, stroking her cheek and screaming in her face, begging her not to leave me. Begging her to keep her promise to me. Begging her to give me the future she had sworn would be ours.
“You told me we’d wake up together, remember?” I pressed my forehead to hers, scorching hot tears landing on her face. “You promised me, we’d wake up together every single morning. Now you’ve broken that promise, and I cannot forgive you for it.” I kissed her mouth, her perfect mouth that lay still. “You must come back to me, my love.”
But she didn’t. She lay in my arms, her head falling against my chest as I wept. Her heart went still next to mine. She was carried away from me, beyond my reach. Away to Nav.
“Bring her back,” I begged the sky, the stormy gray sky that carried smoke and embers and the burning remains of Veles as it was laid to waste around me. “Bring her back to me.”
I was answered with movement behind me, and I looked over my shoulder to see Theron struggling from the debris. One golden wing hung at a strange angle, clearly snapped from his back, and blood ran from a heavy gash across his forehead.
I kissed Elara’s mouth again. “I’ll see you soon,” I whispered against her lips.
I rose to my feet, walking slowly towards Theron as he struggled to gain his footing, swaying in an unseen breeze. He squinted at me, blinking rapidly. His gaze dropped briefly behind me, to Elara’s body, and his eyebrows shot up, betraying the barest hint of grief.
“He killed her.” He looked back at me. “They came to destroy my kingdom, and they killed my bride.”
“Youkilled her.”
Theron scoffed, wincing as he stumbled a little. “I had nothing to do with this. The fucking dragons betrayed me. I should have known.” He squeezed his eyes shut, clutching a hand to his forehead. “Fucking dragons.”
“You killed her.” My foot nudged against something, a dragon’s talon in the sand. I bent to pick it up, curling my fingers around it as I continued to advance on Theron.
His eyes opened slowly, and lightning flashed overhead as he seemed to focus on me properly. “And I suppose you mean to kill me now, is that it?” He laughed, staggering again. “Even though it means your own death?”
“You vastly overestimate my desire to live without her.”
At those words he was suddenly uncertain, and held out a hand. “Rook, please, I never meant her any harm, I swear it.”
“You raped her, you violated her, and you nearly crushed her very spirit.” I was only a few feet away now. “You tried to destroy me, you tried to destroy her, and now you will die for it.”
“Rook.” He stumbled back a little, his eyes wide. “You’ll kill yourself!”
“Then I hope you die faster than me, so your dying eyes are the last thing I see.” I pounced at him, and we toppled to the ground. Theron tried to hold me off, his hands pushing against my shoulders. He threw a fist, striking me in the jaw, but I barely felt it.
The keening rage and grief drove me on, and I slammed his hand to the ground at the same time that I drove the talon into his throat.
Chapter43
Rook
Iwaited for my throat to be torn open. I waited for my blood to fall to the ground in violent, crimson jets, just as it was leaving Theron’s neck now. I waited for the feeling of choking, for my vision to gray, to fall spluttering into the sand until the soft warmth of death took me. Took me back to her, to the Gates of Nav, where she would be waiting for me.
But I looked down at Theron, and felt nothing.
His eyes were wide at first, his mouth lolling open as he tried to breathe through the blood. He became quieter and quieter, his body stilling underneath me. His blood poured out of him, until it was merely a trickle. Until his eyes lost all light, and he died.
And still my heart was beating. Still I smelled the burning city around me. Still I heard the storm raging above me and the roaring of dragons in the distance.
I crawled away from him, breathing rapidly. How was this possible? Why wasn’t I dying?
I tore away the ragged leathers, and looked at my arm. I ran a hand over it, blinked again, clenched my eyes shut, and looked back, rubbing the skin again.
