Page 74 of Blood and Reign

I look over my shoulder as Luka sways. “Don’t leave.” His grip tightens as he uses my body to keep himself up.

I clench my fists, wanting to punch a hole through something. Preferably Cillian’s face over and over until it’s nothing but bits and pieces. “Luka, they—”

“I can’t… shift.”

The knot in my chest starts to grow and tighten, traveling up my chest as it chokes me.

I thought I made it in time.

It’s not supposed to be possible. Luka would be… dead. But I never checked. I never checked or asked… I just fucking assumed I made it…

I turn to Luka, my eyes wide. “Luka… Please tell me he didn’t…”

Luka shakes his head. “No, he didn’t…” Luka swallows as I try to calm myself and stop my heart from jumping out of my fucking chest.

“But…”Butthe idiot says, and my heart kicks up a notch as I go into full panic mode.

“But what? But what, Luka?” I search his eyes, trying to find the answer myself, but see nothing but pain, so much pain.

“Fucking tell me already,” I beg.

“He… split us.”

Split? My head reels back as if someone has punched me. He… split them…

What does that mean?

I glance up, about to ask, when Luka tells me.

“I don’t… I don’t think I’m whole anymore, brother.” Luka’s voice is raw, broken.

I freeze. I freeze and then I move until I’m in front of the nearest tree, slamming my fist into it as hard as I can. The impact and speed of the punch send a vibration that ripples up through it, making it shatter instead of breaking and falling.

Pieces of branch and tree fall around me as I eye up my next target.

I slam, punch, and kick everything around me until there’s nothing but broken branches and flames around us. Until the outside of the forest feels like the inside of me.

All broken, blackened, and burned.

“Are you done?” Luka asks, his voice drained of any emotion. A mirror to his physical appearance.

I heave a breath, each one burning my throat as I let the rage consume me. “No. I want to go back there.” I take a step forward, ready to let them all see it too. Let them see my rage before they feel it.

“If we do, I’ll never make it out of there.”

I stop in my tracks, my body tensing up as I realize the truth of Luka’s words.

Damn it.

He’s right. I won’t be able to protect him if I go back trying to burn them all. Whatever they did to him has made it so he can’t shift right now. Whether that’s permanent is another thing.

Thinking of it alone makes the rage burn hotter. It burns through my body until there’s nothing but devastation left behind.

Devastation and guilt. So much guilt it devours the rage leaving a pit of agony behind.

“I should’ve got there sooner. If I had run faster or—”

“It’s not your fault.”

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