Page 212 of The Broken Aztec Princesses

“Yeah, I think so.”

“Then, I gotta go. Adam needs a doctor.”

Vesta pulled out some string from her back pocket. It burned Chris when it brushed his hand as she began wrapping it around Martha.

“Sorry. It’s silver. I got her.” She turned her head to look at the body hanging above her and cocked her head, before recognition filled her face. "Hey, I know that guy."

"Hugh?" I asked.

Was he only pretending to be a decent guy this whole time? Had he been working with Brandon?

"I never learned his name. We found him wandering the Forsaken Plane when all the rogues escaped last year. I wiped his memory and sneaked him back into this realm, while we kept the tear open looking for the stragglers. Took us almost six weeks to find them all."

I didn’t know how to answer that so I didn’t. I was just glad one person wasn’t pretending around me.

Chris let go of Martha once he felt she was secured and walked over to where I was trying to stand, my ankle still trying to mend itself. He tried to take Adam from me, but I whimpered and shook my head, unwilling to let him go. If Adam didn’t make it, I wanted to hold him until his last breath. Chris placed a hand on Adam’s chest and closed his eyes. They were full of sadness when he opened them again, confirming my worst fear.

“His heart is barely beating, Bells. He won’t make it the forty minutes to the hospital. I don’t even know that he’d make it to the pack house.”

Violet sobbed next to me as I sank back down to the ground. Chris pulled her to him and hugged her, before they both knelt down next to me.

I felt the tears running down my face as I cleaned the dirt off his handsome little face.

“I’m so sorry,” I whispered, as I kissed his forehead. “I’m so fucking sorry. I shouldn’t have kept you with me.”

"Bells, this is not your fault,” Violet whispered.

But it was.

If I hadn’t been so selfish in trying to keep him, he could have been happy with someone else who wasn’t living under the same roof as her enemy, without knowing it this whole time.

“I might be able to save him.” Vesta approached, dragging Martha behind her.

“You can?” Hope rose in my chest as I wiped my tears from my chest.

“I have the power to suspend his life until I get him to a healer.”

“You said you had no power here. That’s why you were stuck as a bunny,” Violet stated.

“I don’t. I would have to take him with me to do it,” she explained.

“Take him where?” I asked.

“To the Forsaken Plane.”

My heart sank all the way to the tip of my toes.

“Uncle Helios said there’s no way to leave,” I replied, my voice quivering.

“There isn’t,” Vesta said, compassion all over her face as I realized what she was telling me.

“No. No, you can’t take my child,” I cried, shaking my head. “You can’t take him away from me. He’s all I have,” I pleaded.

“It’s either that or death,” she reminded me.

I sobbed, gripping Adam to me, unable to even give him a proper hug because the hilt of the knife was still in his back.

“The portal is a few hundred feet from here. If you want to save him, we need to go. I’m sorry.”

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