Page 35 of Magic Hunted
“Don’t feel. Don’t think. Just do,” he whispered.
“What?” I’d asked, confused. The lead guard had thankfully resumed his place in front of the other men chosen for this task. This slaughter.
“That’s what my parents told me to do,” he said. “Keep a cool head and you’ll get through.”
“You have parents?” Where were they? Why hadn’t they protected him?
His smile grew. “And a brother.”
“Why didn’t they save you?” I asked. Most parents did anything to get their kids out of the Choosing. Some even sacrificed their lives to stand in their child’s place. My eyes strayed to the adult man at the end of the line with sadness in his grim expression.
His smile faded and determination filled his eyes. “I’m the one who did the saving. I’m Brais, by the way. I’ll look out for you.”
I studied him, stunned that he offered his help. No one offered me help. “But…why?”
“Because you need to live,” he said, not offering another explanation than that.
I was baffled. That’s what we all wanted. The need to survive this day writhed under my skin like a living creature, but then a knowing whispered through my mind. Safe. Friend.
I stared at him and he held my gaze with his steady one, letting me weigh him up. What would I lose with his offer? I could allow myself to have a friend, especially if these were the last hours of my life.
My hand drifted to my chest and I rubbed away the quick pain as something inside me cracked. The twist in my stomach eased, my chest loosened and I could breathe again as a strange warmth seeped into me. I squeezed his fingers still threaded with mine. “I’ll look out for you too.”
He smiled and the world stopped spinning. I was caught in a timeless moment surrounded by warmth and safety and something unnamable. Then they threw smoking bombs throughout the courtyard and my eyes stung in the instant haze.
My dream warped, throwing the dislocated memories of that day at me in vibrant sounds and whirling colors.
Screams. Blood. Sweat. Fear. A hand severed from a limb still clutching a dagger rolled toward me. Crimson stained the sand at my feet. Our numbers dwindled as the guards found their targets one after the other. Trained soldiers slaughtering defenseless children. Only the most worthy would survive.
Brais and I fought. Dodged. Ran. Somehow survived. We found a corner in the confusion and huddled together. He’d clutched my hand, and it had taken the terror away.
But the shadowed form of Titan’s fully trained guard appeared in the smoke. Brais twisted and the guard’s blade lodged in the thick wood beside his head. He reached for me, his hand outstretched and his green eyes widened at something behind me.
I spun and the tip of a blade sliced through my stomach. Pain. Shock. Wet warmth flowed over my hand when I rolled away. I tried to find Brais in the confusion, sobbing his name through the tears and the snot as a strange numbness crept through my torso. I had to find him. I’d promised. I’d given my word to look out for him.
A grunt sounded to my right. Something wet and hard struck the cobblestone. A head severed at the neck rolled toward me, stopping by my hand, green eyes open and not seeing. Red droplets marred his smooth tan cheek.
Red. So much red. Blood. Death. Brais.
I screamed as another sword pierced my chest, but there was no sword. Nothing to understand why my chest ruptured and spilled with indescribable pain. I tried to reach inside my chest to stop the burning agony but my fingers were too dull to dig past my bones.
I screamed for Brais. Screamed for the end of the day. Screamed because I didn’t help my one and only friend and he was dead. Dead protecting my worthless skin. It should have been me in his place. He had friends. A family. I had nothing to lose and now I had nothing to live for.
I had to run. Get away from Titan’s guards. I jerked, striking something with my fist. I lurched sideways, but hands held me down.
“Wake up, Haera. You’re having a dream.” A distended voice echoed in my head.
A dream? This wasn’t adream. It was a living nightmare of a memory I’d done my best to bury. Only it had pulled free along with the rush of power from the endless darkness inside me.
A warm dry palm covered my forehead and a white light filtered into my head, flitting around my memory. “Now it makes sense why she resists you. Your bond is cracked and scarred.” A dry voice muttered.
“Scarred? Our Change was forced only days ago. There was no bond with any of us before that. How can it be scarred?” The urgency in his voice hooked me. Ashir. It was Ashir’s voice. Comfort bled into me. The same sort of bone-melting comfort I’d felt with Brais that day, whispering through the crack in the bond barrier.
“This is decades old. She was young when it happened, the bond opened and scarred by another mate.” I recognized the voice. Shanyirra.
I didn’t have another mate. I hadn’t Changed with any other touch, although I would have needed all of my mates’ hands on me for that to happen. I had to tell her she was wrong. I had no other mates. I forced the white haze from my mind and turned my head away from the palm on my forehead.
“I promised,” I wheezed. Couldn’t breathe. Throat too thick.
