Page 133 of Bound By Roses

CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE

ABBY

Ascream unlike any other rips through me as Quinn disappears into the rift. The wraiths fly after him. One after another after another. Void is screaming too, though for an entirely different reason. His plan failed.

But Quinn is gone.

I scream again. Or maybe I’m still screaming as my feet fly across scorched earth and propel me towards the rift. If he’s dead, then so am I.

Someone grabs be from behind. My feet lift off the burning dirt as I’m spun around in the opposite direction. I know instantly that it’s Jade. I recognize the heat of his body and the press of his hands against me as he carries me away from the rift.

Away from Quinn.

“I’ll kill you!” I screech, kicking my legs up in the air, desperate to free myself from his grasp. “I’ll fucking kill you!”

“Abby, stop.” His mouth is against my ear, the words full of emotion but not coming within an inch of mine. “Please. It’s me.” His voice breaks, but I don’t care. I reach for my belt and drive my last dagger into his hip, all the way to the hilt.

Jade cries out and then drops me. I fall to my knees hard, burning my hands on the ashen ground, but I don’t feel it. I don’t feel a fucking thing as I launch myself towards the rift again, just in time to see it close and then fade from existence entirely.

“No!”

I thought the shout was mine, but it was too deep and not nearly as broken as the wail that forces its way through my lungs.

The rift is gone.

Quinn. Is. Gone.

Only Void stands where it once stood, and the wraiths around him are far fewer than the number that came out. Most of them followed Quinn inside, leaving Void with hardly a fraction of the army he’d hoped to unleash.

“You!” he shouts at me, pointing an accusatory finger. “I should have listened to my mother and forced you to yield, but I didn’t want to create a world from bad blood.”

“Then kill me!” I hold my arms out at my sides, leaving my core as unguarded in the hopes I’ll meet the same fate as the dragon whose blood I now stand in.

“Not tonight,” he growls, before shadows whip around him and the twenty or so wraiths. I run for him, blinded by the tears streaking my vision, praying to any Gods who will listen that he’ll change his mind and end my suffering.

I blink the tears from my eyes and find the space ahead empty, save for the patches of smouldering earth left from Jade’s destruction. Firm arms wrap around me, just as that traitorous bastard’s voice speaks to me again. “It’s me.”

I wish I had another blade to plunge into his heart the same way he once forced me to plunge it into Quinn’s. He betrayed us. His hands are coated with the blood of thousands of innocents.

WithQuinn’sblood.

I can’t form words through the sounds forcing their way through my lips. I can barely breathe through them, and Gods I hope it’s enough to kill me. I shouldn’t have wasted that dagger on Jade. I should have plunged it into my own chest because only then would this agony cease.

Jade spins me around to face him, hands tight on my shoulders as he forces me to meet his gaze. “I remember!” He has to shout the words for them to reach me over my sobs. “I remember everything. I’m so sorry. I don’t know why I did this. It was me, but it wasn’t me. I swear to you, Abby. I didn’t want for this. Quinn is—”

“Don’t you fucking say his name!”

Jade looks like I slapped him. I know he wants to keep spouting his lies, but his eyes settle on somewhere behind me and a softer voice cuts through the night.

“Get her away from here. We’ll meet you.” Was Arabella a part of this? Before I can turn my fury on her, I’m suddenly weightless.

There’s nothing but wind beneath my feet as Jade takes to the skies with me still in his arms. I fight for freedom, but his grip is unrelenting. For all the fear he once had of eviscerating me if we so much as touched, that apparently isn’t a concern now. I hope I do burst into flames because if I ever get the chance again, I’m going to make him wish he died on that whipping post.

CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO

JADE

Abby has stopped screaming, though I’m not so sure that’s a good thing. Even her silence, her eyes are full of loathing as they follow each and every step I take. We were the first to arrive at camp, and all I can do is pray to the Gods who won’t listen that everyone made it out.

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