Page 95 of Diamond Kisses

“This way.” Peter caught me as I tripped into him again. “Just a little further. You can hide behind the fountain and—”

“No. I’m not hiding. No way.”

“Well, you’re not fucking fighting, that’s for damn sure.”

“Stop being so overprotective!”

“Stop being such a stubborn ass!”

My ears rang.

Blackness curtained my mind.

My heart flurried far too fast, my breathing short and thin. “Peter, please…I have to help.”

“You’re helping by staying out of the way.”

Swallowing hard, I shoved away the dizziness, the fatigue, and dug my heels in. “I’m not going to sit this out. I need to help!”

Whirling on me, he growled. “I’m not debating this with you, jaanu. You’ve lost too much blood—”

“I’m fine.”

“You’re a liability!”

Hurt cut through me. I blinked.

H-He’s right.

“Shit, I didn’t mean…” Letting me go, he scrubbed his face with one hand and leaned heavily on his sword’s handle, the stabby end piercing the grass. “I can’t do what I need to do if I’m worrying about you.”

I wanted to agree with him, but stubbornness made me whisper, “You’re hardly in a state to fight yourself.” I reached for his arm. “You’re barely standing.”

“That’s why I need you far away so I can do what I can even though it’s not much.”

I smiled sadly, suddenly understanding my wonderful friend. “Killing yourself for them is stupid, Paavak…not noble.”

He flinched. But didn’t say I was wrong.

My heart skipped strangely, warningly. “Look, I agree that I’m a liability. I know I should hide so I don’t distract you, but…you’re just as exhausted. Yes, I’m slightly worse off, but you’re fooling yourself to think you can do this on your own. You’ll die. And…you can’t ask me to watch while you sacrifice yourself. That’s just not happening.”

He looked at the ground. “I can’t risk you, Ily.”

“You don’t get to make that choice.” I squeezed his hand. “I don’t know if we’ll win tonight, but together, wecando this. Together. We do thistogether. With him.”

I glanced over at Henri in the distance. He’d turned into the same ruthless hurricane when he’d protected me in the treasure hunt. He ploughed through men, leaving corpses. Grabbing jewels from the ground, he shoved them behind him as he mowed his way through every man who’d used another for his pleasure.

Stewart suddenly appeared from the burning fortress. Penelope and Abigail trailed him, streaked in soot and blood.

Another star-shudderingboomerupted. A plume of fire exploded from the main foyer, gobbling up the huge crystal chandelier and all that awful erotic artwork with greedy flames.

Scanning the battle, Stewart noticed Ben flanking Henri and charged toward them with the girls.

Shouting something over the chaos, Stewart pointed toward the battlement walls.

With smoke stinging my eyes, I peered toward the high barricade, blinded by hunting spotlights—spotlights that kept a perimeter fence between us and the walls thanks to snipers ready to slaughter us.

In the distance, the drawbridge cracked open and began to fall, opening Joyero to the night, allowing someone to escape.

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