Page 233 of Lana Pecherczyk
But it wasn’t her new weapon that stopped his breath. It was the spiral pattern carved into every surface of her cell. The same pattern that decorated his mother’s walls. The same pattern was tattooed beneath his clothes.
She’d been studying him through the bond. Learning from him. Preparing.
Impossible.
“Hello, mate,” he said.
“Hello, monster,” she replied. Her prison rags hung in deliberate tatters, revealing bare skin above her collarbone. “Let’s test the strength of our bond, shall we?”
Then she pressed the bone to her throat.
Chapter
Seventy-Two
River’s healing magic slid off Blake’s skin. Again. He pressed harder against her throat, searching for a pulse that wasn’t there. He poured mana into unresponsive flesh until his reserves screamed empty.
“Come on, Sparkles,” he whispered. “Don’t you fucking dare.”
Birth fluids and sweat lingered beneath a sharp chemical scent. Behind open curtains, he glimpsed Trix cradling a tiny form while Aeron wept openly. The baby’s wails cut through River’s numbness. Ada smiled up at the new parents, instructing them on what to do next.
None of them had noticed that his mate lay still. Dull black hair against white sheets. Chest unmoving. Eyes vacant, fixed on nothing. Well-blessed bond a cold blue stain on her arm.
“Blake, wake up,” he whispered again, too afraid to raise his voice. If he did, if everyone noticed, then it was real. “Blake, come on.”
Footsteps. A compact, female wolf shifter shoved past Jasper and Cloud’s stunned faces in the doorway. Short, dark hair framed sharp eyes that cataloged the room in seconds. River’s devastation. Blake’s stillness. Ada across the room.
“What do you need?” the new female barked.
“Clara?” Ada’s head whipped toward the newcomer. “I need you to?—”
Her jaw clicked shut when she saw Blake.
“It’s too late.” River stumbled back from his mate’s gray stillness.
A final feather fell from his wings. Raw pink skin gleamed where magnificent plumage once spread. He stood ankle-deep in his own molted shame, broken and pathetic.
Fire blazed across his forearm. He glanced down in time to see words forming on his skin, a reply to a message Cloud sent Ash earlier, one River hadn’t noticed.
Why did you do it?Cloud had asked.Why trade yourself for the cryptex?
Ash replied,Because this is my choice. Honor it.
“What the fuck?” he gasped, gaze snapping to the bastard by the door. “Ash traded himself for your fucking cryptex?”
Guilty blue eyes met River’s, no words needed. And then the final blow snapped across River’s being—the triad tattoo went cold.
Dead.
Their link severed.
“Why is this happening to me?” The walls spun around him. The world tilted off its axis. He had to crouch and hold his head to stop himself from blacking out.Why. Why. Why?“Is it because we cheated to become Guardians?”
“You what?” Jasper growled from the doorway. He faced Cloud and pointed at the door. “Leave. Now.”
But Cloud clenched his jaw and stood his ground. When Jasper raised a hand to force him out, Cloud dodged and ducked under his arm. He stumbled closer.
River’s vision blurred red.
