Alec turns, searching the trees for me. I’ve never seen him somurderous. He drops his shield briefly and grabs the man in front of him, slicing through his neck, moving towards my voice. More screams come from the tree line to our left, and an arrow pierces his thigh before his shield forms again.
“No!” I scream. “Stop!”
Silver eyes flash with rage and find mine. I’m almost to him when an arrow strikes the right side of my chest.
“Fuck!” Finn shouts. “For fuck’s sake!” He tears through the treeline, and I watch as he stabs his own man in the chest for harming me. “Not her!”
Alec roars with fury, and a sheer black shield forms around me. Pain rips through my veins as I carefully pull the arrow out and heal myself. Piercing shrieks come from the tree line as Alec slowly kills them.
I haul my body up. “Alec, please let me come to you. Form this around us, and we can talk to them. Please.” He doesn’t look at me but drops his own shield, limping towards me. “Alec, they won’t kill me. They need me.” The jackass ignores everything I say and continues to hobble. A woman breaks from the tree line, and he throws a dagger at her. It lands in her stomach.
“Drop the shield. I’ll come to you!”
He keeps limping over to me, his brace growing bright. Silver eyes on mine, his lips are pursed and his jaw is clenched. Relief begins to swell in my chest at how close he is before an arrow pierces his back and he goes down.
“Let the shield down!” I scream.
He shakes his head, but when he looks up and sees the rage in my eyes, he finally does. I run over to him, and his black sheer shield forms around the two of us.“Stop fucking withtheir minds,” I hiss and gently remove the arrow from his back, healing him quickly.
“I missed you too, Princess.” Alec holds my hand, and I smother a smile. He pulls a dagger from a sheath across his chest and sits up.
I begin to pull out the arrow from his leg, but the shaft breaks. “I can take your pain away.”
He shakes his head at my offer. Like me, he won’t know if something is truly wrong with his body if the pain is gone. “I’ll have to cut through your leg to get the arrow out; I can’t pull it.”
Slicing through his thick fighting leathers with Nora’s dagger, Alec’s blood begins to coat my fingers. His beautiful, tattooed skin becomes a red gory mess as I slice deep into his muscle. Blood pours from the deep wound, making it difficult to grip the small piece of metal. The arrowhead finally dislodges from his leg, and I hold it like a trophy and heal him—
But his shield falters.
My breath catches in my throat as Alec’s eyes widen at a glint of steel. Time slows to a crawl, and he flings his arms out to push me to the side—bracing for the blow. His silver eyes on mine tell me all I need to know. He’s willing to accept his fate as long as I’m safe. I beg my body to be fast enough—the crushing fear of losing him is greater than the fear of losing my own life. Adrenaline strikes through my veins like lightning as I try to cover Alec’s body with my own. Finn’s sword comes down.
I don’t think about the words I’m about to say, it’s like they are known to me before I cry out. “My life. I give my life for his!” Power runs down my body, my brace glows bright, and I turn my head to see Finn falter, eyes wide. A piercing burn on my chest has me gasping.
“No!” Alec yells. He drags me behind himself, and his shield re-forms around the three of us. Finn falls to his knees, and Alec pivots, grabbing the back of my neck. Fear and anger rolloff him. He leans down, placing his forehead on mine, and whispers, “You are my life, do you understand? If there is ever a choice between my life and yours, take mine. I am not worth your life—not worth a life debt.”
He turns back around, and his brace glows brightly. A few stray arrows hit Alec’s shield as blood pours from Finn’s nose.
“Alec, stop!” I move between them, but my chest burns with a pain I can’t heal. I clamp my mouth shut, breathing through it until the pain leaches out into the rest of my body.
“I’m trying to save you! Damn it, Orlaith!” Alec grabs my shoulders. “You have to stop me. Hit me, stab me, but you have to be the one to stop me to erase the life debt he holds over you.” Alec’s silver eyes are focused, fixed on me. “Do it.”
I punch Alec with my right fist so hard that I may have dislocated his jaw, and I definitely broke a knuckle. He spits out blood, and the pain on my chest stops. I heal Alec’s jaw and my knuckle while Finn rolls over onto the ground and stumbles up, laughing.
Grinning wickedly, Finn slides closer to me. “Thanks, love. Life debt paid. I would never live it down if he killed me.”
Confused, I say, “You would be dead . . .”
“Exactly.”
I click my tongue and shake my head. “No more. Either of you,” I command, placing my hands on my hips as if scolding children and not stopping a slaughter.
Alec glares at the grinning Finn, watching him carefully. Finn holds up his hand, and Alec lowers his shield. Grumbles come from many voices in the tree line.
I glance at Finn. “Bring the wounded to me and I will heal them. Alec—” I wrap my arms around him and put my head on his chest. His arms come around me, but he is still stiff, still wary of threats. “Alec, you’re going to come to the inn with me after I heal them. I’ll explain everything then.”
Fearful of letting him go and finding out this has all been a dream, I grip Alec’s hand the whole way back to the inn. Nora greets us at the inn’s entrance, looking at our hands. She shakes her head, as if I have made a choice that she disapproves of, and we follow her up into my room. I quickly wash off the blood from my nonexistent wound and shaking hands.
Dinner is brought up, and for the first time in a few days, I am famished. Finn watches me in satisfaction as I eat. “Love, would you like some more?” He hands me his roll, and I take it with a thank you.
