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The man leaned down close to his face. “Did you really think you could go around terrorizing villages and no one would stop you? No one would notice the wreckage you left behind?” He grabbed Nik by the back of his head, fingers laced in his hair, and pulled him back to stare into his eyes. Nik had to grit his teeth to keep from screaming out in agony.
“You can tell your people that the Coyotes are coming for them…” He nodded and two of his companions grabbed Nik beneath the arms. “If you live long enough to reach them.”
Nik couldn’t do anything to stop them as they pulled him over to the edge of the bridge. His body was too tired and too broken.
Before he could brace himself, Nik plunged into the freezing water below.
It hit him like solid ice. The current threatened to crush his bones. He struggled to move his limbs, adrenaline fighting with his fatigue. Each movement sent fresh waves of pain through his body.
This isn’t how it ends.
Nik’s head dipped below the water and he sucked in, the water flooding his lungs. He broke through the surface and inhaled, coughing up water. The stream pulled him away from the bridge, and he watched as the group retreated. They didn’t bother to watch if he lived or died. It didn’t matter to them.
He swallowed water again. His legs couldn’t keep up with treading water. He couldn’t breathe. Water filled his mouth, his nostrils, engulfing him entirely. He grasped above the water, desperate for anything to hold on to, but cool, freezing air was all that slipped through his fingers. And then his world went dark.
Ali felt a hand on her shoulder, gently waking her from her dream. It had started as a lovely dream. She’d been running through the woods with Nik when they had come upon a waterfall with a secluded pond. She had watched the water glisten on his skin as he jumped in naked. His playful smile tempting her to jump in after him. His muscles had rippled and shadows had danced across his back. He shook his wet head and droplets of water fell around him.
It had been just the two of them, secluded from the rest of the world. In that little oasis, they hadn’t worried about anyone else. No one had been there to judge their connection. Nothing to tear them apart. She was free to be his, and he was all hers.
He’d dove under the water and disappeared from her view. The ripples had settled on the surface. She had expected him to pop up again, but he had taken longer than he should’ve. Too long. Where did he go?
Before he could reappear, she had opened her eyes.
That feeling still haunted her.
“Ali.” Sam’s voice was soft, and there was a faint hint of worry. Why was Sam in her cell in the middle of the night? “Ali.”
Ali turned onto her back to look at him, and her breath caught when she saw his face. Standing there in the candlelight, she’d never seen Sam look so somber. He rarely let any emotion show. An ominous light flickered across his face.
“What is it? Eli? Nik? What happened?” She rubbed her eyes, struggling to collect her thoughts.
“It’s Nik. He’s alive, but—”
“Alive?” The severity of the situation was sunk in. That he had to explicitly say Nik was alive meant he almost hadn’t been. She yanked on her pants and groped around in the dark for the shoes she kept under her bed. Sam stepped back to allow her room to get dressed.
“Yes. He’s…” He bit his lip and ran a hand over his face, too weary to fill her in. “He’s in pretty bad shape, but he’s asking to see you.”
“What happened?” she asked again, this time more frantically. Her throat tightened, and she choked back tears. Her dream was becoming a real-life nightmare.
They hurried through the silent halls of the prison, toward the entrance and out into the night. Her tears froze on her cheeks while Sam explained the situation.
“He was attacked. We don’t know a lot about the people who attacked him, but they…they killed Marcus. They call themselves the Coyotes. They almost killed Nik, but he was lucky. He nearly drowned but the other scouts found him floating by the riverbank and pulled him out, resuscitating him. He’s got a nasty wound from an arrow, a sprained shoulder and broken arm, lots of bruises and cuts. He looks rough, Ali. I don’t mean to alarm you, but you should be prepared.”
Ali couldn’t swallow. They had killed Marcus. It could’ve been Nik.
She hurried to keep up with Sam’s long strides, and her stomach turned when they made it to the infirmary. It smelled sterile and clinical, and she tasted bile.
It reeked of death.
Ali pushed all that aside when Sam pulled back a curtain to reveal Nik lying on a bed, his face beaten and bruised. Several cuts had been bandaged, but she could see the red seeping through. His breathing was strained, and each heavy exhale felt like a knife in her own lungs.
She stepped forward and grazed his fingers, slipping her hand into his. It was shockingly cold. Much colder than normal, like a corpse, and she shivered. She wasn’t sure if he could feel her, but after a moment he squeezed and rubbed his thumb over the back of her hand.
“Hey,” he said coarsely. His lips were dry and cracked and a shade of blue that matched the skin beneath his eyes. He attempted a weak smile, and Ali couldn’t hold it together anymore.
“Hey, hey, don’t cry.” He attempted to comfort her but she shook her head.
“I should be comforting you, not the other way around,” she sobbed.
