Whatever reason he hadn’t told me, I couldn’t let it end like this. Couldn’t live in a world without him, a world where I never told him how I felt. Just yesterday, he’d told me he would stay. And today, it felt like that could all be slipping away from me.
“I need to find him,” I said, worry filling me to the pit of my stomach. I turned back to the injured vampire. “Where is Barrett, Ezra?”
“You can’t go out there,” he said, clutching his side. “You’ll be in danger. A wraith is no joke, Eryne. He can’t?—”
“I can take care of myself,” I said, narrowing my eyes and heading into the forest.
There was nothing that was going to keep me away from Barrett.
From my mate.
From the man I loved.
Nothing.
I tried to imagine his face, letting whatever connection was between us guide me to him. Following the path back to theclearing, I found where we’d broken the spell last night. The candles laid discarded on the ground, the spot where lightning hit the middle of the circle scorched. Barrett’s pile of shredded clothes still sat where he’d shifted, a reminder that he was in wolf form. It was eerily quiet, and I could only hope that I was going in the right direction when I followed a path of broken branches and trampled bushes.
A branch cracked behind me.
“Barrett?” I whispered, cold fear trickling down my spine.
But I didn’t feel his presence, the way I always could. I felt… fear.
There was a sound, almost a snarl, and then my vision went black, and everything ceased to exist.
Barrett,I tried to cry out. To scream for him. But I was drowning, lost in an endless abyss, and I couldn’t seem to figure out how to find my way out of the darkness. I was growing weaker, my legs tiring, and I couldn’t breathe.
So instead, I succumbed to it, no longer having the energy to fight.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
barrett
Something was wrong.
Iwas wrong. Something I didn’t like to admit often, but in this case, we were vastly unprepared for the scene that had unfolded as soon as the girls brought the barrier down.
It hadn’t been one wraith, but a whole nest hiding out, like they were in wait for us. Even with the three of us, we were outnumbered by their horde. It seemed like they were planning for exactly this scenario, trying to feast on our energy. They weren’t easy to kill as it was, considering they were undead and could reanimate unless their heads had been completely severed from their skeletal bodies.
Ezra was right. I should have called them. Something I’d begrudgingly agreed upon after he’d gotten hurt, the wraith sending him slamming into a tree, those poisonous nails scraping through his flesh. How long did he have? I hoped he made it back.
Lightning cracked in front of us, and I darted back, jumping to the side to keep it from scorching my fur. The electricity crackled through the wraith who swiped his bony hand, nailssharpened into points, towards Damien. It exploded upon contact, though another quickly replaced it.
“What the hell are these things?” Damien’s brother—Zain—growled. He’d arrived last night, stepping through a portal of darkness after Damien had gotten the girls to safety.
It was the only reason I could breathe easier, knowing Eryne was safe. It was the only reason I could even focus.
I bared my teeth against another wraith, watching the demon princes out of the corner of my eye. I’d never seen anyone move like they did, effortlessly darting through the shadows and portals they created in an instant. Snapping my teeth, I lunged for the creature, sinking into rotting flesh and old fabric.
The two looked so similar to each other—dark hair, both massive, maybe six and a half feet tall—and seemed to share similar powers. The main way I could tell them apart was their eyes—Damien’s were blood red, and Zain’s were bright gold.
How many had we killed? I’d lost count. Black blood dripped from my maw, and I couldn’t get the taste of rot out of my mouth.
“They’re like no demons I’ve ever faced,” Damien said, wiping his forehead before using his shadows to create a sword, slicing another’s head clean off it’s body.
“That’s because they’re not demons,” came a voice like gravel, grating against my skin. “They’re something worse.” Black eyes met mine, and my wolf whimpered.
Death.
