Page 100 of Of Wind and Terror

Or maybe just torture him.

I slice my ax back and forth through the foliage, clearing a path, but I don’t see Treyton.

Maybe he went the other way.

Or maybe he’s already back?—

I pause when I reach the edge of a clearing.

For a long moment, I don’t understand what I’m seeing. It appears to be a massive pendulum swinging steadily. Back and forth. Back and forth. Back and forth.

But then I notice the shoes. The stained shirt. The ruffled pink hair.

“Fuck!” I shout, racing forward.

Treyton hangs, still and lifeless, from a thick tree branch. The noose around his neck causes his head to tilt at an odd angle.

For a moment, my first thought is—am I too late?

But I refuse to allow that thought to fester as I reach for Treyton’s legs, supporting his weight.

“Fuck! You motherfucker! What the hell were you fucking thinking?” I roar, using my free hand to slice at the rope with my ax.

Treyton falls, but I’m there to catch him, helping him to the ground.

His face is blue.

Fuck.

I don’t know what to do, so I slap his cheek hard enough to leave a mark.

“Don’t you dare fucking die on me. Do you hear me? I can’t bring your dead body back to Kassandra. I fucking refuse. So wake the fuck up and face me, you coward!” As I speak, I work on loosening the rope from around his neck.

He doesn’t even stir as I remove it and toss it aside. There’s a red mark across his flesh where the rope dug into his skin. The sight causes bile to churn in my stomach and rise up my throat.

“Hey!” I slap his cheek again. “Wake the fuck up. Gaiadamn it, Treyton!”

What the hell am I supposed to do now?

“Motherfucker. You owe me for this,” I hiss under my breath as I place my mouth to his and breathe air into his lungs. When I force my lips away to begin chest compressions, I dramatically spit on the ground beside his head. “Can’t believe I fucking kissed you. I hate your guts.”

But yet I continue to press down on his chest as I will life into him.

He needs to live, dammit.

Kassandra will never recover from losing him.

She may hate him, but that doesn’t change the fact that he’s her mate. I don’t understand why Gaia gifted Kassandra someone as plain and stupid and irritating as Treyton…but it’s not my job to question the goddess. For some indecipherable reason, she deemed Treyton worthy of Kassandra, and I need to learn to accept that.

Sort of accept it.

At the very least, I can’t kill Treyton, no matter how badly I want to.

I alternate between breathing air into his lungs and pushing on his chest hard enough to bruise. I’m just grateful the dumb fuck didn’t break his neck.

Why the hell would he do this?

How could he leave Kassandra like that?

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