Warrior (Relentless #4)(237)

“Shhh, don’t cry. It’ll be okay.”

“It’ll never be okay.” She pressed her face against my throat, and I held her tightly as she cried.

My heart ached, not because of the demon attacking it, but for her. She’d grieve when I was gone, but someday she’d be happy again. Tristan and Nate and all of the people who loved her would be there to make sure of it. The knowledge she would go on filled me with a sense of peace and acceptance.

Elena’s hard voice cut through the silence. “Time’s up.”

Sara started to pull away, but I held her tightly as I opened myself completely to my Mori. Our mate needed us, and we worked for the last time to give her the final gift of our love.

“Be strong, Sara. Live – for me.”

I felt her shock and heard her gasp when I pushed everything I had through our bond. My speed and strength, coupled with her power, would give her what she needed to escape this place. Where I was going, I didn’t need it.

My arms went slack.

She staggered backward, her face drained of color. “What have you done?”

I could barely see her through the dark haze descending over me. I love you, I thought groggily, glad she was the last thing I would see of this life.

My Mori cried out and became silent. In my chest, the vamhir demon surged to claim my dying body. I shuddered and convulsed under the attack, but the demon was too late. There would soon be no life left in this body for it to use.

Someone shook me. From a long way off, Sara screamed, “You promised you’d fight! You said you wouldn’t leave me.”

Hands hit my chest, and my body jerked as if hit by an electric current. The demon in my chest stopped moving.

I felt my heart slow and my breathing grow shallow as coldness spread through me.





*


A roar penetrated the cold darkness I floated in. There was something about the sound, a mix of pure grief and rage, that tugged at my chest. Someone was in a lot of pain, and I wanted to go to them. But my body refused to move.

“Jesus, did you see that?”

“I’m not sure what I saw.”

“She disappeared into thin air. What they say must be true.”

“What’s that?”

“That she’s half Fae?”

The voices sounded garbled like I was underwater. That must be why they made no sense.

Why was I underwater? And how was I breathing? But I couldn’t be breathing. I was dead.

“What’s going on out there? Can you see anything?”

“No. There’s some kind of ice wall blocking them.”

“Ice wall? Go check it out.”

“Tristan asked us to stay with him.”

“You think she can kill a Master.”

“After what I just saw, all my money is on her.”

Her? Sara. My beautiful little warrior. I would have given anything to stay with her. But I had to leave so she could live.

Hearing she was with Tristan sent warmth through my cold body. She was safe with the people she loved.

It grew quiet again in the blackness. I’d never felt so alone. My Mori had always been a part of me, and it felt wrong not having it here with me. Was this how Sara felt when she wasn’t joined with her Mori? How did she stand the aloneness?

The vamhir demon was dead too, killed by Sara. And I was completely alone. I hated it here, but it was a small price to pay for her life.

The darkness rippled and pulled at me. My head rested on something warm, and a hand touched my face. Her hand. But how could she be here in this place with me?

“Sara, we have to –”

“No. Leave us alone.”

“No one is going to take him from you. Let us move you both somewhere warmer.”

“Nikolas doesn’t get cold.”

“Nikolas would want you to take care of yourself. You can’t stay out here.”

“He needs me. I won’t leave him.”

“Here, little one.”

More warmth wrapped around me. I’m here, Nikolas. I won’t let them take you from me.

The voice came to me, not out of the darkness, but from inside my head. But that was impossible, unless…

Solmi, whispered a voice so faint I thought I’d imagined it. A voice I’d never thought to hear again. Hope flared in my cold chest as I searched for the missing part of me.

I’d known a warrior once who had been so gravely injured in battle everyone thought he was dead. What we hadn’t known was that his Mori had gone into a kind of stasis to regenerate itself.

Sara’s voice came to me again. You would have been so proud of me, Nikolas.

I am proud of you, I wanted to say.

In the back of my mind, something stirred, another consciousness awakening. I reached for it, and it slowly moved toward me. It sank into me quietly, and the loneliness I’d been feeling disappeared.

My Mori was alive.

And so was I.

I’m here, Sara, I tried to say, but no words came. The connection was still there between us, but my Mori was too weak. Like the rest of me.

My heart beat slowly in my chest, and my breath was shallow. My body and my demon had been through a lot, but my Mori was quickly repairing us. With each second that passed, I could feel my Mori growing stronger and the bond opening.