Page 50 of What Whispers in the Dark
Punish her?How could heeverpunish her? When she was picturing demons lurking in her memories, just as he still did. When she warred off the torment of the hands that were vicious and unjust against her fornothingthat was her doing.
She thought he should punishher? For defending herself? For burninghim?
He deserved a lot more than the festering flesh on his chest. There wasnothingto punish.
Trembling, his fist squeezed so tight that if he were holding his sword, the iron would have fractured. Then he flexed them as far as he could and forced a brutal sigh. “I’m far too tired for this. Go to bed,”he ordered, cold and dismissive. He needed to get to his tent. Needed a drink. To lock himself away?—
“You’re not going to punish me?”
Garrik willed what little strength remained into his voice and said, “You punished yourself enough tonight. I will honor that penance. Now, go to bed before you pass out.”
She said nothing for two of his unusual heartbeats. Then Alora suffered a hard step forward, boot sliding in the dirt and gravel as she blurted, “I’m sorry.”
Without a doubt, she meant it, but her remorse was ill-placed. She didn’t need to apologize for speaking the starsdamned truth.
Like slaying the Ravens, he still didn’t feel anything. And with a voice like shards of glass, stony and empty, Garrik said, “Don’t bother.”
Thalon couldn’t break his stare from the window as he fell, bursting around Garrik into a storm of deathly light, amethyst and navy colliding in flame.
Alora clung to him as his back slammed into the snowy slopes of the mountain, digging her fingers into his neck as they tumbled. Around them, smears of blacks, and browns, and icy whites flashed by, but he could only focus on keeping Alora in his arms.
Until that damned boulder separated them. Throwing him forward, away from her. Out of reach.
Hopeless, Thalon watched the female his brother entrusted him with desperately struggle to cling to something—anything.
But she kept tumbling.
Hekept tumbling.
Seconds—he hadsecondsto reach for her. To try something. To call on his magic,pleadfor it towork.
But the only thing he could do was turn his head?—
Before it slammed into a rock.
This bonus chapteris nestled within Chapter Thirteen, following the steamy night Garrik and Alora shared in the wintry barn. While they enjoyed each other’s warmth, Jade, Aiden, and Thalon were forced to find shelter of their own …warmthof their own. With dawn rising, snow melting into spring, and a pirate snuggled up close … horrified, Thalon learns the lengths Aiden will go to keep him alive.
Thalon’s eyelids fluttered as a decrepit room came into view. Dragging him slowly through a fog of an awful pain pounding his temple and a heavy ache through most of the surface of his body.
Warmth, unlike the battle-black leathers he wore, wrapped around him like a thick, smothering blanket as rays of sunlight burst through the shattered glass of three windows framedby aged stone. Which was …strange…considering his last thoughts were of falling down a mountain buried beneath a blizzard of snow.
And that rock …
Unleash Michael.That starsdamned rock …
Stifling a suffering groan, Thalon prepared to draw his fingers to his throbbing temple, but the movement was denied. It was then he identified that his arms were crisscrossed over his chest while his left shoulder dug into the dirt impersonating a floor, trapping his fingers between his leathered sides and biceps.
At least it was warm; the fire not five paces from him had already surrendered to embers and ash.
Next, he wiggled his numb toes, pleased to know his socks and boots were dry. He hadn’t fallen into the lake but instead wound up here—whereverherewas. And in that alarming thought, it became clear he needed to find that particular detail out. How did he get there? Where were his friends? Who had made it down from Fourtress?
Who was dea—no. He refused that thought as much as the stiffness in his joints.
He couldn’t lie there any longer. Not when they were out there somewhere, wounded for all he knew. So, with a grunt, attempting to stretch and bracing for every bone to protest with the slightest movement, Thalon slightly shifted?—
Only to find something solid pressed against his back.
Something breathing… A distinctlymale-something breathing.
