Page 87 of Above Cursed Winds

Letting out an anguished scream, Zia realized that what Key had said centuries ago was coming true.

You will find love, your mate, and watch him fall while you lay broken.

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Every step brought him closer to death. Each time he resisted, trying in vain to turn from this suicidal compulsion and rescue Zia. But the voice in his head—Sehrin’s voice—urged him onward.

Every word he’d spoken after Zia’s arrival had been under Sehrin’s coercion.

Harsh wind continued to whistle through the open pane of glass above the rocky outcrop below, and his feet treacherously carrying him toward certain death.

Another step. Another. Another.

Sehrin’s gleeful voice in Jeremiah’s head was maniacal and cruel, the Raeth giddy at the thought of Jeremiah’s unwilling suicide.

Knowing Zia would be caught under Sehrin’s spell next, that she wouldn’t be able to defend herself from the monster that was making him a puppet, threatened to tear his heart in two. What he wouldn’t give to apologize to her, to tell her it wasn’t her fault. If he could only share one more thing with her, he’d assure her that he loved her.

Another step, Jeremiah.

And then he was standing on the precipice. His feet balanced precariously on the ledge, the broken glass crunching beneath the soles of his shoes. Wind battered against his emotionless face as Zia’s sobs tightened his chest.

This was it. This was his death.

And he hadn’t even told Zia he loved her.

His heart broke yet again, knowing she would never realize it. He’d never get to say goodbye to Rukia, or play peek-a-boo with Isaak again. Rona and Gideon would forever believe he’d been fundamentally broken by the night of Gideon’s near assassination. He wouldn’t be able to see if Myko’s sessions with Isaiah would work or finish the tiling on Zia’s basement bathroom.

And most of all, he would never see Zia’s face again. Of all his regrets, that one cut the deepest.

Inside his head, Sehrin’s voice spoke once more: Jump, Jeremiah. Jump to your death.

And he did.

Zia’s scream shattered the quiet. Full of unrelenting torment, it echoed off buildings, reverberating against the volcanic rock below. Jeremiah fell, tumbling through the air with no trace of his Elemental ability. If he hadn’t been dormant, he would’ve been able to stop himself. As it was, he was a ship without a sail.

Black, twisted juts of rock rose up to meet him, and in the last moment, he closed his eyes.

Chapter Forty

A psychic scream echoed her audible one, Zia’s horror abounding as she watched her mate leap off the tower and plummet from the fatal height.

Beside her, Sehrin gripped her arm roughly, yanking her to her feet. Zia wobbled, losing what sanity she’d reclaimed, but her eyes were fixed on where she’d last seen Jeremiah.

Now, all that remained was an opening, shattered glass frosting the edges as a lick of wind kicked back in her face.

In her need to see Jeremiah removed from danger, Zia had unwittingly killed him. Not purposefully, but she’d pulled the trigger all the same. As her heart sputtered and adrenaline raced through every inch of her trembling frame, Sehrin’s grip tightened painfully.

“—listening to me?” Snarling now, the male Raeth ruthlessly jerked her back and forth, attempting to secure her attention. “You belong to me, Zia! Not anyone else! Remember that, you useless wench.”

Something within Zia snapped.

Ignoring the absolute agony in her wing, her body worked on autopilot. Fingernails digging into her palm, she launched a punch into Sehrin’s face, howling in outrage and anger. When he staggered back, her psychic assault caught him off guard, and he instantly sank to his knees beneath her abilities, bound by her force of will.

Nero, having heard her psychic scream, teleported to her. “Zia?”

“Sovereign,” the title was a plea on her lips, “please bind Sehrin. I—I need to see to Jeremiah.”

Wordlessly, Nero complied, and though he grimaced at the state of her wing, he asked no further questions. Every step down the metal staircase saw her anguish growing. Feathers brushed along the ground, but the pain of her broken wing had compartmentalized itself behind a wall of her growing dread.

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