Page 60 of Conflicted Fate
“Jada.”The voice was pained, shot through with agony.
“Fate,” I whispered, surprised she could still reach out to me since I was no longer home to a shard of her being. “We failed, didn’t we?”
“He grows stronger,” she whispered, the ethereal glow cracking with white light that sucked some of the energy out. “You must stop him.”
“We tried,” I said. “But we were too late. He’s already forging the sword. Binding the rest of you to it. We couldn’t stop him …”
The figure fell to one knee, needing a hand to hold herself up. I reached forward to help, but my hands went through her.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “We … we failed.”
Fate looked up at me, her eyes echoing my despair. “Not over …” she said weakly, the green light fading, “until it’s over.”
Then she was gone, and I was back in the exhaust shaft, dangling precariously from Kiel’s grip.
“JADA!” he was roaring. “Wake up! Pull it together! I can’t hold you here forever!”
I shook my head, then reached out with my legs to steady myself. With his help, I climbed out of the shaft, rolling over onto the cold stone of the mountain peak, gasping for breath. Cool air entered my lungs, and almost immediately, I was overcome with a coughing fit as I hacked up black sludge and spit it out with a grimace.
“I’m so sexy right now,” I muttered as Kiel did the same nearby in the darkness, night having fallen.
“You’re bent over, face near the ground, with your ass in the air,” he remarked. “Still counts.”
“My ass is burned. I can feel the blisters.”
“Yeah, but it’s stillyou,” he growled. “That’s what matters to me.”
Somehow, despite the net of failure draping over me, I managed a weak smile. We were all going to die, but Kiel had finally figured out how to express his emotions.
At that point, I would take any win I could get.
“Come on,” he said. “Let’s go.”
“Where?” I asked. “What’s the point? We lost. Didn’t you feel that? That was Lycaonus killing Pallantia. He must have been the last of the other Alphas. We weren’t even able to slow him down!”
“Maybe,” Kiel agreed. “Now, get up.”
Glaring unhappily at him, I did as he said.
“Good. Now, let’s get going. It’s a long journey back to Arcadia or wherever else the others may have gone by now.”
“Arcadia? Why?”
“Because,” he said sternly, “this isn’t over yet.”
“How do you know?”
A look I’d never seen before came upon his face. An icy determination backed by utter belief in his purpose.
“Because we’re not dead yet,” he snarled. “And Lycaonus will regret that fact.”
Chapter Thirty
We had just crossed into western Teagan when the scent tickled my nose. Skidding to a halt, I lifted my snout into the air, drawing deeply to confirm what I thought I smelled. I did.
Ahead, Kiel had slowed and was looking at me, his wolf as still as a statue, utterly trusting that I knew what I was doing.
I sampled the air several more times, orienting in the direction of the scent trail, then began to trot after it. Kiel followed soundlessly as we picked our way through the underbrush, our senses on full alert. Whether he knew why I’d changed course or not, he recognized something wasn’t right.
