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Excerpt from Asidian Lore: A Tale of the Gods
A group of recruits emerged from the end of the tunnel, a limp body carried in the arms of a gangly dark-haired boy. His blue eyes were wide as he adjusted to the torches forming a semi-circle around the exit, but he never ceased his relentless pace.
I immediately tensed beside Isiah, Harlow, and Carter.
A pale face turned away from the boy’s chest, her lids fluttering.
Kiara.
She looked nearly dead, hardly able to move, to open her eyes.
“She saved me,” shouted a lad trailing behind. “I fell in, and she fought, she f-fought whatever was down there.” His voice shook as violently as he did. “She was down there for too long,” he added, and I recognized the guilt shrouding his features.
My feet were moving before I could stop myself. And Ishouldhave stopped myself.
Harlow was watching, always watching. He certainly didn’t miss me as I ran for the boy carrying Kiara and scooped her into my arms before tucking her head against my heart.
She was so cold, her body lifeless in my arms.
I caught the lieutenant’s steely gaze from across the room, a thousand questions swirling in those pools of green.
The damage was already done.
“Move aside,” I shouted, shouldering past the other boys just arriving from the tunnel.
They were screaming about some monster attacking, and the one who’d claimed she had saved him sported a gruesome gash in his thigh. Harlow could deal with him.
Kiara shook, her teeth chattering, her eyes closed. She needed to get to the bathing suite, had to get warm. Instinctively, I pressed her deeper into the planes of my chest, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. She trembled even harder.
Shit, shit, shit, shit.
Barreling past a gaping and confused Isiah—who I was sure would ask me unwanted questions later—I stormed down the corridor and to the bath. I couldn’t look down, too afraid of what I’d find.
Another death. Another body. Lifeless and forever frozen—
I kicked open the bathing suite’s door and marched down the steps leading to the pool. I didn’t waste time undressing or even pulling off my boots.
Kiara jerked when the warm water touched her skin, and she began mumbling something, her lips a shocking blue. Panicked, I submerged her, wetting her head, making sure her nose and mouth remained above the surface.
Wake the hells up,I ordered silently, gritting my teeth.
I’d picked her in Cila, and because of that choice,mychoice, her death would be my fault. I’d killed so many others, but for some reason, I knew her death would be my final undoing. Kiara, although hardheaded and stubborn, reminded me of all that was light and good. I’d killed men before—too many men—but their hands had been dirty, at least to some degree.
All Kiara was guilty of was protecting her brother and getting chosen by me.
If I robbed the world of her light, there’d be no going back from that.
Like she’d heard my silent pleading, her lashes fluttered against her cheeks. I cursed, and her eyes opened into slits.
“There you are,” I rasped, relief flooding me.
If it had been any other recruit, I’d have brought them here to warm up, but I sure as shit wouldn’t have held them, rocking them back and forth beneath the heated water. And my pulse wouldn’t be racing, panic flaring in my blood, causing fire to simmer inside me.
For the briefest of seconds, she turned her head to me, those bright, almost yellow, eyes cast in shadows. She blinked, unsure of where she was, but her body had settled, if only slightly.
“We need to get you warm, Kiara,” I murmured, and one corner of her mouth lifted at the sound of my voice. It almost made me smile.
Her small hand grasped my biceps, her eyes lacking their typical shimmer. “Your arms feel good,” she muttered, the words coming out as nothing but a choked whisper. Judging from her expression, she was clearly dazed and possibly delirious.
