Page 69

Chapter Sixty-Nine

Jasce

I reach across the bed, searching for Annora’s warmth, but find only coldness.

My eyes snap open. “Annora?”

No response.

I throw off the blankets and swing my legs over the bed’s edge. My gaze sweeps the tent—finding her boots still by the entrance, her cloak draped over a chair, but no Annora.

“Annora?” I call again, louder this time.

The silence that answers sends ice through my veins—fear that something dreadful has happened.

I grab my weapon belt and rush to the tent flap, yanking it open. The cool morning air hits my bare chest as I step outside. At first, I see nothing but the usual camp stirring to life. Then, my eyes catch on a dark shape lying in the dirt twenty paces away.

My heart stops.

Annora lies face-down in a spreading pool of blood. A dagger glints beside her outstretched hand.

“No!” The roar tears from my throat as I sprint to her and drop to my knees in the blood soaked earth. “Annora…”

Gently, I turn her over, cradling her head. Her skin is ghost-white, lips tinged blue. Blood seeps from a wound on her chest, right over her heart. I touch her neck, desperate to find a pulse, but there’s nothing.

“Call for a healer. Now,” I scream to the closest warrior.

I gather her limp body against my chest, not caring about the blood soaking into my skin. “Stay with me, my love. Please stay with me.”

No answer.

I hold my hand over the wound, trying desperately to stem the flow of blood. “Please, Annora. Don’t leave me.”

Panic rips through me as I shake her shoulders. “Open your eyes. Please, open your eyes.”

Still nothing.

My chest constricts as I pull her closer. “Please come back to me.”

Memories flash through my mind as I rock her in my arms. Her smile when she sees seashells, the way she curls against me at night, how her eyes light up when she draws. All the little pieces that make her her .

“You can’t leave me like this,” I say, the words raw, desperate. “I’ll do anything. Just stay with me.”

Someone tries to pull her from my arms—a healer, maybe—but I clutch her tighter. I can’t let her go. If I hold on long enough, she’ll wake up. She has to wake up.

“Annora.” I brush the hair from her face with trembling fingers. “Remember what you promised? You promised me that we’d build something beautiful together? You can’t break that promise.”

My vision blurs as tears spill down my cheeks. “Come back.” I kiss her face between words. “Come back. Come back. Come back. Please come back.”

But she remains still and silent in my arms.

Panic seizes me as I clutch her tighter, willing my heartbeat to somehow restart hers. Willing this to be nothing but a nightmare I’ll wake from.

But the blood soaking through my surcoat is real. The growing coldness of her skin is real.

No!

Fuck this!

I refuse to believe it. Refuse to believe she’s gone.

“Fuck!” I bring her closer, but she doesn’t wake up.

I cradle her face between my palms, my thumbs brushing over her cold cheeks. “Wake up. Please wake up.”

Her head lolls against my arm as I shift her closer. Those dark blue eyes I adore remain closed. Just yesterday those eyes sparkled as she laughed at something I said. Just yesterday.

“Remember when we first met?” I brush my lips across her forehead. “You were so angry at me. So defiant. I think I adored that defiance.”

Warriors gather around us, but I barely notice them. Not when my Annora is in my arms. My love. My life. My soul.

“You can’t do this.” I shake her shoulders again and again. “You can’t leave me.”

But she doesn’t move. Doesn’t speak. Doesn’t open those eyes I’d give anything to see again.

Fuck!

This cannot be real!