Page 103 of Night of Death and Flowers

“Please,” she croaks. “You have to help her.”

“It’s too late. I am sorry,” I whisper, running a knuckle over her cheek. “I will keep you safe.”

In the chasms of despair, she is all I have.

Calista pulls back, her eyes locked on me, then plunges her hands at my chest. Betrayal slices into me deeper than ever before when I look down, realizing she’d stabbed me with a dagger. With every beat, blood rushes the potent poison on the blade into my veins, slowly paralyzing me.

She stumbles back, leaving the dagger in my chest. I grip my fingers around the onyx hilt, then drop to my knees.

“Cali…”

FORTY

Calista

The wind whips against my face as I run, pinching my cheeks in an icy embrace. My hair is a knot as my strands are pulled back in a flurry of cold gusts. I’m barely halfway to the temple when I run through the same clearing we’d been attacked on our first night.

Pieces of Edwardo’s corpse in the late stages of decay cover the ground. I slap my hand over my mouth and nose, the scent overpowering.

“I’ve been looking for you.” A man’s voice echoes from behind a tree, and I white-knuckle the dagger, then spin to face Alaric, just making out his brown eyes and tousled, dark hair. “Where’s your sister?” he asks.

“I don’t want to fight you.” I clench the hilt of my weapon. “I will, but you should know I’m not a participant in The Harvest.”

His eyes narrow, his cheeks smeared with dirt, blood caking his week-old, brown tunic, with no sign of the crimson robes. “Yet you took my kill!”

Decay magic quakes in my bones as he takes a step closer. I shift my position, lifting my dagger in warning. This can’t be happening. He must be talking about Eleanore, which means he was watching us.

I shake my head as a sense of dread crawls over my skin. “Where’s Dephina?” I decipher.

“How do you know she’s here?”

I swallow hard, a fever sweeping over my forehead. “What did she tell you?”

He hesitates, then shrugs. “She sent me to stop you. If I take you out, I’ll win.”

I shake my head. “She’s lying.”

“I’ll take my chances,” he spits. Dephina must have sent him to slow me down. She knows I’ll kill him. Who the fuck else have the elders been manipulating?

“Where are the other competitors?” I ask.

“I killed Cain and Marsilia,” he exclaims. “Her magic showed me where you’d be tonight. Now, enough talking.”

Adrenaline surges through my veins as I wrench my arm back and hurl the dagger towards his silhouette in the darkness. It slices through the air, the blade slicing into a tree trunk as he narrowly dodges it.

With lightning-fast speed, he moves through the air, landing on top of me before my brain can process how fast he fucking moved. I reach for his throat with charred fingers, but he laughs, eyes alight with the darkness of Volan’s incredible strength and speed. His movements are a blur as he slams my wrist against the ground, evading my touch before I can lay a hand on him.

The forest echoes with my grunts as he thuds his fists into my ribs. I twist my torso, his fist connecting with my chest this time, a searing pain ringing through my ears.

I splutter a cough as the world spins for a moment. I lift my throbbing hand, releasing my shadows like a nest of vipers.

Our eyes lock in silent challenge. I need to get to Arabella!

I wipe the blood trickling from my lip, a primal urge to kill numbing the pain until I’m standing.

Energy surges into my fingers with a torrent of force, and I watch as my shadows knot and curl around him. Combining and harnessing the magic inside of me is easier than I thought, despite Azkiel depleting me last night.

“Die, you fucking asshole,” I shout, each breath rattling my aching ribs, knowing he could have cost me my sister’s life.

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