Page 27 of The Wraith & Her Killer

We reach the entrance and it feels as if I may faint with the adrenaline pumping through my veins, hope flooding my chest because our freedom is just on the other side of this threshold. Adris sets me back on my own two feet, and he’s gripping my shoulders, his unhinged, wild eyes boring into me, urging me to turn me around and run out the door and into safety.

I’m about to follow his silent command, but a deafeningpopreverberates off the walls. Adris and I both flinch at the same moment that something wet explodes across my hands and face.

It’s sticky.

Warm.

Crimson.

Oh, God.

Blood.

Adris stares at me and for the first time, I can see the raw, genuine fear swallowing him whole as blood begins to bloom in the center of his chest before he collapses against me.

I go down with him, unable to hold his weight, and I’m screaming. I’m screaming, and crying, and begging as I press my hands to his chest, trying and failing to staunch the bleeding.

“No, no, no, no, nonononono!”I press harder, ignoring the distant sound of staggering footsteps. “Adris!”

His breathing is erratic, coming in random puffs and spurts fromhis bloody mouth and nose. “Fuck! Hold on!Please,” I beg, gathering the material of his shirt and holding it against the bullet wound that won’t. Stop. Bleeding.

He’s… Hhe’s dying.

Bleeding out before me and I’m fucking helpless to stop it.

I can barely see through my tears and an all-consuming pain shreds its way through my heart as Adris grows pale beneath me, beads of sweat dotting his brow, his dark hair plastered to his face.

This can’t be how we end. I’ve only just gotten him back.

His eyes start to roll back, and it has me leaning in close, screaming his name mere inches from his face. “You have to stay with me! You wouldn’t let me run, so neither can you, Adris Knox.”

The words barely register through the agony that has a chokehold on me. His body falls unnaturally still and his chest rises so painfully slow in an attempt to take another breath.

No.

No, no, no.

Another scream rips from my throat, tearing apart my vocal cords with the same intensity in which my heart is shredding in two.

On a hiccup, my eyes fall to the last arrow left from his quiver that had fallen from his back and without thought I reach for it.

I won’t live without him.

I can’t.

Turning the arrow around, I take aim just over the Acarved within the scarring over the very heart that Adris stole so long ago. But before I can strike, a hand darts out, gripping my wrist hard enough for the bone to crack.

It’s Adris’ broken last words, gritted through bloody teeth that will forever haunt me down to my marrow.

“Don’t. You. Fucking. Dare.” His eyes can’t even focus on me, but I feel the intensity of his words nonetheless.

“Adris, don’t,” I beg, knowing that despite fighting him tooth and nail, I’d do anything he asked of me. “Please.”

“Fight,Wraith.”

“For what?” I ask him, but I’m not even sure he hears the words until a moment later when he sucks in a garbled, rattling breath.

“For life.” He coughs and more blood leaks from his mouth. “Pomni, tvoe serdtse prinadlezhit mne.”

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