Page 60 of Savage Hunt

“She wouldn’t dare kill me without you here to watch.”

I wouldn’t leave him. I didn’t give a fuck if they caught me. The moment Ruin released me, I’d sprint back across the bridge to join Fane.

When we reached the other side and Ruin tossed me down, I stumbled back toward the bridge before Nik could catch me. A few guards had already stepped onto the shaking wooden planks, heading in our direction.

I’d bulldoze them over or simply let them take me. Either way, I’d be back with Fane, and he wouldn’t have to face that hell alone.

As if he could see the plan forming in my mind, Logan shot me a somber look. “I’m sorry, Tate.” And then he used his talons to slice the rope attaching the bridge to this side of the mountain.

The guards screamed as the bridge violently shifted sideways, tossing them into the pit. Roars erupted from the darkness below as the sub-demons rejoiced at their gift from above.

“Logan, don’t!” One side still held on. I was light enough to shimmy across. I could do it. But as I sprinted forward, Ruin snatched me off my feet.

“You can’t save him now.”

I kicked and screamed as he dragged me away from the edge. “Let me go.” My talons grew and sank into his arms, spilling black blood across his tattooed flesh. “You have no right to keep me here.”

Logan sliced the other side, and the bridge swung through the air, slamming against the mountain where Heldrok stood. There was no way back to Fane from here.

A vicious howl belted out of my mouth, and Fane’s head yanked in my direction as the guards led him away. His blue and gold eyes glowed through the dim land.

“I will get out of this, Tate. I promise.”

“You should have let me come with you.”

His brief phantom touch across my cheek had my muscles going limp. “I’d rather you be safe.”

Ruin gently lowered me to my feet as the guards swallowed Fane. Mykel gave a cruel smile in my direction.

“You should have let me go with him.” Fury sliced my words, but the heartache in them was even more palpable than the rage.

“His priority was always to get you out and safe.” Ruin’s grip fell from around my waist, but he remained close. “He made us swear to get you free at any cost.”

I turned to him, my lips quivering. “Yeah, well, you should have ignored him.” I shoved by Ruin, disregarding Logan’s pleas. “Next time, make him the priority. Not me.” I’d done enough damage to be punished for. No one should waste their life to save mine.

“We’ll come back for Fane.” Logan jogged to my side. “We’ll get you safe and then return. We have a backup plan.”

My brow arched. “You do?”

He wrapped his arm around mine. “Of course. We’ll have to adjust some things, but we’ll get him out.”

“When?” I asked, anxious to bust Fane out of Heldrok. They had another thing coming if they thought I’d sit back and let them go without me.

Ruin appeared on my other side. “Let’s find somewhere safe to regroup. We aren’t much good to Fane until we rest.”

Rest? How could I rest knowing Fane was back in that place?

“It’s clear.” Nik emerged from the cave he inspected for us. He hadn’t bothered with his glamour since we’d been in the Underworld, and his neon-green eyes gave an eerie, radioactive glow through the darkness blanketing the land.

We’d walked for hours until black, twisted trees grew into the hard ground. They looked burnt as if a fire had swept through the sparse forest, but this was their natural state. Scarlet lightning still streaked the ebony sky.

We entered the cave, and Nadia cast a spell to create a fire. Logan dropped one of the bags of supplies they hid on the mountainside, unzipping it.

“I brought these for you.” He passed me a bundle of clothes I’d left at his apartment in Savannah and a pair of new combat boots.

“Thanks,” I mumbled.

Before I could walk away for privacy to change, he snatched my wrist. “He’s going to be okay, Tate. He’s been through hell and back a hundred times. He’ll make it out of this.”

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