Page 73 of A Heart Of Bitter Poison
“Well, well. You got your voice back. How interesting.”
Ember kicks my hand and the sword lands just beyond my grasp. She kneels close enough for me to feel the heat radiating from her body, but far enough that she’s just out of reach.
I’m looking up at her, red rage in my eyes, black flame in hers, wispy smoke curling from her back. Tendrils of sparks unfurl behind her. “I will cut you to ribbons if I have to, Leucosia. Whether in one piece or twenty, we are going back to the Shadow Realm.”
One moment a malicious smile is spread across her lips. And the next her hot blood sprays across my face.
“Not today,” Cassian says beyond the shadow of Ember’s wings. Ember and I both look down to the short sword she had dropped in the snow, its bloody point sticking out just beneath her clavicle. She takes a shuddering breath and our eyes meet.
I smile.
“Get fucked, Ember,” I say, and with a vicious hiss I punch her in the face with all the fury I can channel into my fist.
Ember falls to the ground unconscious.
“Stai bene,zanne dolci?” Cassian asks as he comes to my side. He gives me his familiar lopsided grin, those kind warm eyes smiling down at me.
I slump down, exhausted and bloodied and broken, but victorious. A victory that somehow still feels like a loss.
My throat closes tight with thoughts of what could have happened. She would have brought me back, just like she said. She would have thrown me into that dungeon. There would have been no second chance to escape, the Shadow Realm would have made sure of that. These thoughts are rolling away like debris in a tidal wave as Cassian loops my arm over his shoulder and I pull him into a fierce hug. “Thank you, Cassian. Thank you so much.”
“It’s all right,” he says. “You’ll be okay.” He grips me tighter as I lose a piece of myself in his kindness.
The accident. The pain. The fight. The fear.
The taste of copper on my tongue.
I’m such a fucking fool.
I shake with the effort to keep from crying or yelling or fucking screaming or full-on sobbing. It’s fury like I’ve never felt. Not just with Ashen, but with myself. Iwantedmy heart to prove my head wrong. I wanted it to be okay to forgive, to love. And where did that land me? At the bottom of a hill, in a twisted hunk of metal, cut to shreds.
“Why? Why do I keep doing this to myself? I was falling for him.Again. What the fuck is wrong with me?” I whisper. I know that sounds so full of self-pity, and that I’ve got myself to blame as much as anyone else, but Cassian still holds on tighter anyway. He shares his warmth and his quiet countenance. It’s a balm in the cold of the snow and the unknown.
“Nothing is wrong with you, Lu. Your heart is full of courage, and to love is an act of bravery.”
“How can you say that? I ran away from you. And we were good for each other.”
Cassian laughs and holds on tighter. “No, we weren’t,tesoro. We wanted different things. We just tried hard to not believe it for too long, even if we loved each other.” Cassian lets go enough to place a chaste kiss on my cheek. He gives me a long look, like he’s trying to share his strength and hope. “You did not run away from me. You ran to yourself. Now come on. Let’s get out of here.” Cassian holds my arm in his grasp and raises us both from the frozen ground.
When I’m steady on my good foot we start our trek across the clearing. It doesn’t take us long before we find a rhythm, and Cassian navigates us around roots and rocks with patience and precision. I know it’s going to be a long journey back up the hill.
I just don’t realize how little time we’ll have.
A sudden crunch.
Slick metal, sliding through flesh.
The flood of blood into a lung.
A wail shatters the quiet of the meadow. It takes me a moment to realize it’s coming from me.
Cassian drops his hold on my arm and I fall to the snow. He watches as thekatanaslides back from his flesh before he falls to his knees next to me.
No…
“Word of advice, vampire. Make sure your enemy is dead before you turn your back,” Ember says as she flicks the sword, spraying thick, dark blood across the snow.
Cassian slams down on his side. His lungs pump his breath into the cold air. I roll him onto his back and we lock eyes. He mouths the wordsI’m sorryas bloody foam gathers in his mouth.
