Page 52 of Shadow Bonds

Thunder rolls out above me, and the heavens open as rain starts to fall.

“SENA!” Knox screams in my head making me wince.

“I’m not ready to die,”I tell him before squeezing my eyes shut, and waiting for the onslaught of pain… But nothing happens. Nor doesn’t anything touch my skin.

“Talk to me! Say something. Anything!”Knox begs.

I open my eyes, and they widen when I see the red rain—almost like blood—pour down around me, followed by a sizzling hiss.

But none of it touches me. Only the small shadowy shield that’s now completely surrounding me and protecting me from the blood rain.

“I’m okay,”I blurt out in a release of harsh breath.“Just… stay away until it passes.”I glance through the shadowy shield and watch as the red rain scorches the ground and starts small fires around me.

“We can see the rain from here,”Knox say in shock and relief.“How are you okay?”

“I don’t know how to explain it. But I’m somehow… shielded from it.”

“What do you mean by shielded?—”

“How long does the rain last?”I glance around, hoping this dark shield holds up.

“Not long. Usually a few minutes,”Knox says, and I nod and grow quiet, trying to think of anything but the sizzling sound the rain makes as it hits the ground and how much heavier it is now.

“I need you to keep talking to me, Sena,”Knox whispers in my mind.“Malakai can’t see what you’re seeing.”

“I’m not trying to block him out,”I bite out, not in the humor for him to tell me off for another thing that’s out of my control right now.

“I know,”he says softly, surprising me.“Theon feels your panic. Just keep talking to me.”

“You want me to tell you how much of an asshole you and everyone else are?”

“Sure.”I hear the smile in his voice.“Let’s go with that.”

I grow quiet again, getting lost in my thoughts. In everything that’s happened since I came here.

“Sena—”

“Why didn’t you tell me about the test?”I ask, needing to know. He sounds like he actually cares. Like they all do. But that doesn’t make any sense. None of them even gave me a heads up about it.

“What test?”he asks, sounding baffled.

I roll my eyes, wondering if he’s going to try pretend he doesn’t know.“The one where I was sent to a horrible place with monstrous worms that shoot up from the ground and vicious beasts that look like huge wolves.”

“You were in the Wastelands?”he growls, his voice doing a one-eighty.“Who brought you there? Is that where you were the last couple of days?”he grits out.

There’s no way they couldn’t have known. “You’re telling me you didn’t know?”

“No, I didn’t fucking—”he releases a harsh breath.“Just… tell us who brought you there.”

I pause and then for some reason tell him.“A couple of Shadows. They said all females had to do it to cull the weak.”

“Cull the?—”

“A girl died. One of the beasts ripped her apart.”My chest grows tight remembering Cora’s scream as she fell.

“I’m sorry,”he says, and it actually sounds like he means it too.

“You really didn’t know?”I ask, still not ready to believe him.

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