The vision changed again, showing small bits of the attack. The whole time I had the same thoughts and feelings of wondering how they got here.
How did they get into this realm?
How did they know where to find me?
Quick flashes showed Rune fighting beside me. I saw my toughest warriors battling the enemies. One looked my way. Her amber eyes held a moment of fear, like she knew something that pertained to me.
Rune yelled for me, and I caught a quick glimpse of him before pain speared through my back and sides. I screamed, making everyone in the memory stop what they were doing and look at me with wide eyes and open mouths. The scream held actual pain and something for them to worry about.
Not just for me, buteveryone.
The moment bled into another with me on my back, staring up at Rune with tears in our eyes. My body was on fire, and my lungs were tight as I tried to catch my breath. Black spots bled into my vision as I gazed up at him while he held me on his lap. His large hand rested on my chest as he helped me push my soul into the veil to be reborn. Warmth bloomed in my body from his power and mine combining, binding us together as my soul began slipping from my broken vessel.
I wanted to bind us together before this moment, but I never got the chance to. It was cruel and unfair for him to be bound and incomplete until he found me again, but it had to be done to keep everything balanced. I believed in my soulmate and trusted that even in death, he’d protect everyone in my absence. And that he’d protect me when he found me in the next life.
I gasped for breath, tears stinging my eyes as I tried to tell him I loved him. He begged me, asking where to find me, but I couldn’t form the words as my last breath left me on a death rattle.
In a snap, the visions were gone, and I was back on my horse with my hair blowing in the wind. I glanced at Rune, who was already looking at me with his eyebrows drawn together like he knew what had just happened. Our link wasn’t connected, but our merged souls could have been enough for him to know.
The pain of my last life’s death still echoed in my mind and body, forming tears in my eyes as I stared at Rune. I still didn’t know much about my past life, only what I saw in my dreams and visions. But it was enough to give me perspective on what Rune went through. On what I went through in my death but was too nervous to ask about.
“Find... me. ..”My painful and breathy plea echoed in my head.
Blinking away the stinging tears, I lowered my eyes and turned away from Rune. A tear slipped down my cheek, then another, as the echo of my feelings and death lingered around me like a bad dream. My lower lip wobbled as the two words played over and over.
I barely noticed the narrow path opening wider as we went off the path into the woods. It should’ve worried me that we were going back into the cursed forest, but we rode faster than the wind as we wove around the trees. The foliage grew thicker and large rocks formed on both sides of us as we must’ve gotten closer to some rocky cliff.
“Find... me...”
Rune did what he promised. He found me and was protecting me. That had to be what he meant by saying, “My duty to you...” all this time.
God, I felt like the worst soulmate because of how sensitive I was. How I didn’t see all the signs... all the things he said that showed he kept his oath to me after all this time.
The little hairs along my body and at the back of my neck rose as static charged the air. My ears began popping, which only happened when a portal was being opened. My heart matched the quick pace of the horses’ hooves as we charged toward it.
I squinted my eyes in the darkness, trying to find it, but couldn’t see anything other than a sudden opening in the trees. The bright moon was like a beacon we rode to, and as we were feet away from leaving the woods again, I noticed the ledge.
We were about to ride off a rocky cliff.
I curled my fingers tighter on the reins until my nails dug into my palms. I trembled and couldn’t make a sound as I watched Slátra’s horse jump off the ledge and disappear into thin air that zapped with electricity. Over it, I heard Harper’s yelling and cussing as she and Hluti were right after Slátra. My eyes widened as I watched my friend, wanting to yell for her but unable to form any words. I knew how scary the portals were every time, and this was still new for her.
At that moment, I glanced at my mare’s white neck and mane. I tightened my legs around her, preparing for the jump.
I realized then what I wanted to name her. I wasn’t sure where it came from or why, but the name fit her with how sweet she was to me.
“Please don’t let me die, Sugar,”I begged her softly in my thoughts.
Warmth flooded into me that wasn’t Rune’s, and with it came fondness. I couldn’t hear it in words, but I heard Sugar’s promise that she wouldn’t let anything happen to me.
Then she leapt over the edge of the cliff, and my heart was in my throat while I parted my lips on a silent scream. We rode into nothing but air, and my body felt the familiar weightlessness that came with portals. I gripped tightly onto my reins and squeezed my thighs on my mare to make sure I wouldn’t be pulled off her as we were dragged into the new realm.
ChapterThirty
My stomach dipped again with another spin before I rode out of the darkness and was back in a familiar world with fallen snow.
I blinked as I glanced around us and noticed the snow wasn’t built high like it was the last time I was here. It reached to the lower half of Sugar’s legs. Not enough to bury me, but enough that could be played in. The wind wasn’t howling, and it was silent, with a heaviness that only the snow could bring.
The absolute serenity of it filled me with peace. The whisper of the fat flakes as they fell and landed softly increased the feeling. It helped me breathe and calm down for a second after all the crazy things happening. Being hunted, scared, and crying every five seconds took a toll, and this was the soothing balm needed.
