Page 23 of A Sun Scorched Bloom

"Has he done it before, Gray?" Lea questioned softly, already knowing the answer to her question, but praying all the same that she was mistaken. "Does he know how to summon the Lonely Death?"

Gray pulled her against his chest, refusing to answer as he pressed his lips into her hair. Sobs began to wrack her body, shooting pain through her chest and into her limbs.

"If it can be done, Lea, it can be undone. We will find a way, because I am not living without you. Do you understand me?" He pulled her back slightly, trying to get her to look at him, but her eyes were so heavy they refused to remain open. "Lea!" He grabbed her face. "Open your eyes, Lea!" he ordered, his deep voice full of demand. Her body tried to obey, but sleep pulled at the edges of her consciousness.

"You need to fight! Open your eyes," he begged as his magic tried to fight off the illness attempting to spread through every inch of her. "You willnotgive up, because I will gladly walk into death’s embrace before I live a single moment on this earth without you next to me. The world will plunge into darkness without you, My Flower…"

Lea nodded, settling against his chest once again. "I’m tired…" she mumbled, her head lolling forward. "So tired." She couldn’t fight it anymore.

"Stay with me, please." Gray’s voice broke as she faded into oblivion.

Lea was running, sprinting through dark trees as mud squished between her toes. Where was Gray? She couldn’t find him anywhere, but she couldfeelhim. The electricity thrumming through her skin told her he hadn’t wandered too far. He was nearby. The question was, was he close enough to feel that something was stalking them?

Lea tripped on a root protruding from the ground, crashing into the thick, freezing muck. "Shit!" she cursed as her elbow hit something sharp. Where was Gray? The feeling that something was following her grew stronger as the hair on her neck stood on end. A howl rang out from behind her—not the cry of a fenrir, but of something that soundedalmosthuman. Something evil to its core.

Scrambling to her feet, she ducked under a branch and threw herself behind a thorny bush, small scrapes peppering her exposed arms and legs. Hissing in pain, she tried to push her day magic toward the cuts, but her light was gone. Where it normally danced and swirled, embracing her heart and pushing light through her bloodstream, there was only a colorless void. She was filled with complete darkness—a black fire ready to destroy. The sensation made her nauseous, and she tried to push away the foreboding energy, but it stuck to the inside of her ribs like hot tar.

Footstepssquishednearby, and Lea squeezed her knees to her chest, trying to make herself as small as possible. She worried her thumping heart would give her away and tried to slow it—to force it to beat more gently. Her vision went fuzzy as she held her breath.

It didn’t help. She couldn’t stop the gasp that escaped her lips as a monstrous figure slowly walked into her line of sight. The man bent down, running his hand against the root she’d tripped over. The root cringed away from his touch, trying to retreat into the ground, but the man was faster as he swiped a finger through the blood that had spilled from her own veins onto the rotting wood. Bringing his hand toward his face, he took a deep inhale, then tilted his head back in a frenzied cackle.

"So careless, to allow yourself to bleed in my presence,Little Flower." The sound pulled Lea’s stomach into her throat. It was so familiar, and yet, she couldn’t place the strange voice that seemed to echo throughout the woods as he spoke.

Lea looked down and clamped a hand firmly against the jagged cut running up her elbow. Blood gushed between her fingers, wet and hot, the stinging of the wound making her eyes water as the blood began to flow so fast she couldn’t stem the bleeding.

"Do you not believe I can smell the life draining from your veins? I am Death himself." The man laughed menacingly, a humorless, empty sound that caused pain to bloom throughout Lea’s body. Fire erupted in her ribs with every breath, and the skin of her chest and arms burned.Shit.And why does my neck hurt so bad?

The demon turned to her as he stood, his green eyes piercing through the dark.

Alaric?

Lea scrambled back, her hands sliding against the slick ground as she attempted to stand. Rough bark scraped her skin as her back hit a tree, and she cried out in pain as she twisted to crawl around it. Escape. That was all that mattered. She felt her airways expand, her blood pumping straight to her muscles. Even the most primal part of her body knew that she needed to flee, but as soon as she turned around, Alaric appeared in front of her again. He crouched down, his head cocked to the side.

"Hello, Little Flower…" he said again, the nickname mocking. Fire sparked at his fingertips as they pressed into her arms, searing her skin. "So nice to see you again. Azalea—"

"Azalea!" She was shaken awake. "Azalea!"

Suddenly, Lea could see again, the world around her a bit brighter than the pitch black she’d been experiencing moments before. It wasn’t night at all, but dusk, only minutes before the sun would set.

Lea’s nightmare faded away like wisps of smoke as she gasped for air. "Alaric!" She looked around frantically, her hands shaking violently as she reached out for her mate. "He’s here! We have to go!" she forced out, her throat burning once again.

"It was a dream, my love. I can’t feel Alaric anywhere near us," Gray soothed, rubbing her sticky, sweaty hair from her face as Lea met his eyes. Her heart slowed.

A dream. It was just a dream.Lea shivered, rubbing her arms as she reached out with her senses. Birds still chirped, and the rhythmic hammering of a woodpecker searching for dinner knocked and echoed against the trees. A beetle skittered across the ground near her feet, clicking as it dropped into a small hole. There would be no birds or bugs if Alaric was near. Gray was right. Alaric had only found her in her mind as she’d rested. The only green-eyed Nestruir anywhere near her was Gray, but looking at his eyes now, she hardly recognized them.

They were dull, with dark circles and thick bags betraying the calm facade he was trying to school his face into. His skin was pale, and his hands shook as they cradled her head. It reminded her of when they’d traveled to Auropera, when he’d been so tired after days with her in their village that she had put aside her anger and granted him the gift of sleep.

"You look exhausted," she croaked, weakly tracing the lines above his brow. Her stomach dropped when she looked at her arm. The black welts had spread to just below her elbow and were cracking and oozing blood as she lifted it.

"I’m fine," he whispered as his hands traveled down to her chest. Pain seared through her entire being as the rumble of night magic flew across the grove, and Gray’s face immediately creased in concentration. Healing energy flooded into her skin, and she realized the reason for his exhaustion. He’d been trying to heal her as she’d slept throughout the day, depleting himself of magic as he waited for night to replenish it.

"You need to rest," Lea urged, fighting to keep her eyes open.

"I’ll rest when I know you’re safe," he protested. "The sun is setting. It will replenish my power."

Lea wanted to believe he could save her, but even as he healed her arms, she felt painful sores opening on her stomach. "Gray—"

"I can heal you!" he roared, the bugs and birds that Lea had heard before going silent.

---