Page 117 of Dark Fate

I'm torn, knowing I'm not giving Dani a choice like I had. I'm forcing this on her, thrusting her into a world she never asked for. But call me selfish—I can't exist without her, can't bear facing eternity alone, without her light to guide me.

She's motionless, her heart gone fucking silent, but I'll be damned if I accept that if I let her slip away without a fight. I plead to the Norse gods I've long since abandoned, begging Dani to return to me, to come back from the brink.

"Odin! Hear me!" I roar to the heavens, my voice raw with desperation, with the agony of a man on the verge of losing everything. "Please, I need her back…I'm nothing without her!" As she lies motionless, doubt creeps in, a sinister whisper insisting it's over—that she's lost to me, that I've failed her in the most fundamental way.

I'm too fucking late, the voice hisses, a cruel taunt. I've let her down, let the one person who matters most slip through my fingers, and now I'm left with nothing but the bitter ashes of what could have been.

Still, I clutch her tight, bringing my wrist against her lips again, silently demanding she drink. My heart fractures imagining life without her light, without her tenacious spirit. "Don't leave me, baby," I implore, my voice cracking. "Not when we've only just found each other." I stroke her hair, cherishing its softness, praying this isn't the last time. "Please come back, Angel. Please..."

Everything outside this pocket of existence melts into unimportance—the continuing battle, the shouts of rage and agony dimming to silence. My whole world narrows to this instant: clutching Dani as if she is the sole mooring in a storm-savaged sea.

Lucian lingers nearby, his features warped with regret and remorse, the weight of his actions etched into every line of his face. I know he was attempting to save her—but if his fucking blood succeeds where mine falters…that is a nightmare I can't confront.

I shut him out, shutting out fucking everything except the woman I cradle against me—my reason for existing. "Drink, baby," I plead once more, my wrist pressed to her mouth, my lifeblood dripping, waiting for her to respond. But her lashes don't stir, and her lips remain still, a cruel mockery of the vibrant woman I know and love. Desolation swamps me, a yawning darkness threatening to pull me under.

She has to come back to me.

She has to…

Lucian's gaze darts between us, his eyes filled with anguish and uncertainty, torn between the ongoing fight and the unfolding tragedy before him. "Rhy, I think…" He lets out an anguished gasp, his voice barely above a whisper. "I think it's too late."

"No!" I roar, my voice a primal howl of denial, of rage against the very fabric of fate. "Come on, baby…" I plead to Dani, my words a desperate litany, a prayer to any god who might be listening.

Lucian comes to a swift resolution, spinning away without another word, leaping back into the thick of war, leaving me alone with my grief.

Dani's breaths were non-existent—the rise and fall of her chest, a terrible, unnatural stillness that threatened to break me. My voice fractures as I keep pleading for her life—for the future we're meant to share, now dangling by the most delicate strand.

But as the seconds tick by, each one an eternity of agony, a sickening realization begins to dawn, a truth I can no longer deny.

We were too late.

I was too late.

And now, as I hold the woman I love in my arms, her body broken and still, I feel the last shreds of hope slipping away, replaced by a yawning void of despair.

Then...warmth surrounds us, radiating a light that isn't born of me or any enchantment I possess. It's a pure, ethereal glow that seems to emanate from Dani herself, a luminescence that defies the very laws of nature. Her lifeless form lifts from my arms as if tugged by invisible hands, a gentle but insistent force that I am powerless to resist.

Awe and hope swell within me as I behold her limp body hovering before me, suspended in a halo of soft, pulsing light. Her hair stirs in an otherworldly breeze, each strand dancing as if caressed by unseen fingers, and her skin emanates a soft glow, a radiance that seems to come from within. I want to reach for her, to pull her back into my embrace, but instinct stays my hand—this isn't normal, isn't anything I've ever encountered in all my centuries of existence.

"Dani?" I breathe, scarcely trusting what I'm witnessing, my voice a hoarse whisper of disbelief and desperate hope. Is this part of her power, some hidden facet of her being that even she was unaware of? My shattered heart dares to believe what I'm seeing.

"She must come with me," an otherworldly voice decrees, power thrumming through the command, raising the hairs on my nape and sending a shiver down my spine.

It's a voice that seems to come from everywhere and nowhere at once, a presence that fills the very air around us.

A snarl tears from my throat, unbidden, a primal instinct overriding all reason. I reach for her—my hold on Dani constricts reflexively—I'll never let her go, not to anyone or anything, not even to the mysterious force that seems to have claimed her.

"No!" I roar at the unseen presence, wrenching Dani back against me with everything I have, every ounce of strength and will I possess. "She stays with me!"

My fangs are bared, muscles coiled, ready to fight whatever seeks to take her from me. Dani is my mate, my reason for being, the essence of my existence. I don't know who or what is attempting to steal her away, and I can't trust anyone or anything when it comes to her.

"You must trust me," the voice insists again, a note of urgency threading through the words, a plea that seems to resonate in the very marrow of my bones.

But how the fuck can I do that? How can I trust anything or anyone when it comes to Dani when the mere thought of losing her threatens to shatter me beyond repair?

Before I can respond before I can voice the torrent of emotions raging within me, Dani begins glowing brighter and brighter, the light intensifying until it's almost blinding, a supernova of pure, radiant energy. Then, she vanishes in a flash, winking out of existence as if she were never there.

"No!" A tortured roar shreds from my throat, a sound of pure, unadulterated agony. She was here, in my arms, and now she's gone, ripped away from me by forces I can't begin to comprehend.

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