Page 205 of What Lies Within Masks & Shadows

Stepping into the glow of the tent, Garrik was soaked head to muddy boots. Still, the same dark circles laid under his eyes. If at all worse than before. His gray hair laid flat against his head, dripping water beads onto his skin. His tight soaked tunic hugged every swell and dip of hard muscle as he, with imperceivable speed, dawned to her.

And then, she heard him. Not beside her, but in her mind.

Alora, listen to my voice. You need to breathe.

White, burning flames exploded, throwing him from the bed.

She couldn’t breathe. She could only see her hand burning a hole in his chest.

Garrik coughed on impact, choking on the wind that jutted from his lungs as he threw out his arms, consuming the entire tent in a storm of funneling clouds of ash and smoke and wind.Alora!Please, listen to me! I will not hurt you. You need to breathe?—

My, how pathetic you are. Look how you fall apart so easily. You’re weak!

No, I’m not, Kaine. I’m not!

Talons of vicious wicked laughs scraped every inch of her skin.

Worthless. Pathetic. Weak.

Alora felt flames roaring higher and higher and higher. Threatening to detonate and obliterate the entire camp. She had to do something, had to stop him from seeding himself and growing his wicked lies until she would hurt someone again.

HurtGarrikagain.

“Get out of my head, Kaine!” She ripped her throat to shreds, screaming, hands shaking with sunbursts and spitting stars as they fisted into her hair. “Get out!”

Her voice. It erupted into a blaze. Ripping through the veil of Smokeshadows until it lit the canvas beyond.

Ara!Garrik’s hands commanded the shadows to the burning walls before they pulled the raging inferno—pulled her—to his chest. He heaved her from the bed before corded arms wrapped around her, embracing in a hold so tight, nothing would escape.

Alora’s knees buckled.

Then she was falling—theywere falling. Falling to the furs beside her bed when she landed in his lap. And before her body could drop to the ground, Garrik’s arms laid her into the hard muscles of his heaving chest. His frantic, ringed fingers cupped her limp face when her sapphires rolled back.

Afterward, she was floating. Bursting across the night sky like a shooting star.

Her heart felt like it was cleaving in two—painfully.Stars, it hurt so badly. Perhaps not a shooting star, but a dying one.

Stay with me, Ara.

His voice was trailing kingdoms away.

Do not go. Hold on to me. Stay with me.

The night sky. It danced in her eyes, welcoming her home to the darkness that consumed her entirely.

“Alora,” Garrik hoarsely rasped. His entire body trembled, holding her balled up against him, rigid atop the furs on the floor. Pulsing every ounce of icy chill his body could possibly offer.

A pressure weighed heavy on her chest. His palm rested over her slowly beating heart.

Something frigid and wet dropped on her cheek.

“I … thought Ilostyou.”

The charge pulsed through her heart. It stung, but not as much as the pain before.

Alora’s eyes slowly opened as another droplet tapped her cheek.

Garrik’s eyes shined like smooth ice on a winter lake. Every rapid blink moved liquid over them as he took in shuddering—steadying—breaths.

---