Page 53 of Last Ride of the Umbra Fae

She did not blink.

She only tilted her head as she bore a daggered stare, as if she were trying to piece together who I had been before all of this.

End’s Wrath stood in the foyer as Fang’s lawmen flanked him. From beyond, the garden encircling Fang’s palace caught my eye. The Umbra Fae had torn down every wall that had stood in their path. A gale of wind stirred, unearthing everything in his way. I saw End’s Wrath for the legend he was, the monsterfrom the stories. He was a man carved out of stone, who had lost so much. A man who would end it all for her. The cries that ruptured through the lawmen’s throats was proof. He carved a calamity of destruction as a searing reminder of how far he would go. He tore through their minds and fears. I felt it in their screams as a chill swept down my back. His force was a gravitational draw to him, until their flesh was stolen from their bodies, becoming nothing but a mist of blood and chunks of meat in his wake amidst the rubble.

Light broke through, and she was nothing but a shadow cast in its rays.

They were the Umbra.

The woman who was staring down at me wasn’t Vessa.

She was death.

The moment she’d brought me to my knees, I’d known I only had seconds to act before she’d snap my neck. I wanted to escape the way she was looking at me, and in the same thought, if these were my final moments, at least I’d had a chance to look at her once more.

From the corner of my eye, I saw one of Fang’s rogue survivors rush her. She did not move as he closed the distance. Not until he was at arm’s length did she punch her fist through his chest and pull out a beating heart. Shadow curled around her hands, a darkness that bled into the air, bending to her whim. It was wicked and cruel, and gods-damn, I was a bastard for still finding it a turn-on.

The man’s body collapsed, leaving behind a vessel and a heart thrumming in her grip. She observed it for a moment before she slowly turned to me.

“Where could I begin that doesn’t end with me taking your life?” she finally said, a swell of anger brimming her eyes. Again, she did not blink; a silver glare remained.

“Vessa…” I deeply exhaled the moment she released her shadowed hold. “Let me explain.”

She squeezed the pulsing heart in her palm until it burst into a mist of blood, spraying the both of us.

“Imperfect souls can live a thousand lives. I cannot live another if you’re not in mine,” I said, damning myself for…fucking hells…for everything I’d done wrong.

Within the edges of my mind, I used the power against her hold, pushing to my feet against her shadows that bound me to the ground. She wanted me at arm’s length while I wanted her by my side. I hated this feeling. I remembered moving inside her, how easy it had been to rein in her power and wield it with mine. Though I remained a few feet from her, the temptation to test that newly-formed thread only grew in desperation.

I swallowed when I saw that her end of the bond still had starlight. In the blink of an eye, the inky swells of her darkness solidified into an onyx lasso. It slithered around her waist, and like cracking a whip, I thrust her body against mine.

I caught her in a hard crash, landing in a bruising kiss, as I couldn’t stand the way she was looking at me. Both our powers fell away as we became just two beings in the middle of a crumbling palace. At first, her body tensed against my lips, but they soon softened, and she ran her hands along my neck.

“I’m sorry, Desert Rose. Please forgive me. I couldn’t do it, not after knowing who you were.”Fuck, who was I kidding?I leaned my forehead against hers. “Not after knowing what you meant to me.” We both shared the same air, exhaling deeply. “I couldn’t…” I rasped, shaking my head as I caressed the back of her neck. She pulled away, staring into my silver-lined gaze full of regret. A flame of betrayal flickered on the edges of her eyes, but the silver moonlight drifted away. Like a break in the clouds, I saw her lavender stare, honey-magic like the stars. The anger still held within as she heaved.

She pushed up onto her toes to kiss me. The rogue tear that slipped down her face felt like guilt whipping against already open wounds. Her lips moved against mine as if for the very last time.

The grin on her face was almost as haunting as her next words. “Your knife or mine.”

31

Vessa

He tensed at the whisper leaving my lips as I unsheathed my dagger. I bared my teeth and went for him. He pivoted and took a few steps back as shock raked through the bond. In the same breath, he grinned, expecting nothing less of me.

“I will always love dancing with you, Desert Storm, even one as dangerous as this.”

So this was what wild love felt like; it was untamed and turbulent. Nameless and unexpected. Like a storm without warning, he’d come into my life with the force of his wind and pulled me onto his path. Like any unexpected storm, destined to leave mass devastation, one never had a name until it reminded you of the loss.

“Ryder,”I whispered, a word that nearly wrecked him through the bond as his jaw clenched.

All I saw was red and all I heard were words that drifted upon an echo of promises we had made.

“You’re going to be mine. I don’t think any forced bond could take that away from us.”

“You don’t have to hide from me, cowboy. I see all your demons.”

But I’d missed this one.

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