Page 80 of Burdened Bonds

Remembering how fucking painful that was, I consider sending my own bolt of magic his way, but before I have a chance, a speeding bolt hits Renzo smack on the rightshoulder and sends him flying to the ground. He lies there panting, a wound the size of my fist visible through his scorched jacket, and grins up at me.

I roll my eyes, spin around and send a smack of thunder crashing through the air, enough to send Winnie, Azlan and Stone falling to the ground as well.

Then, with my hands on my hips, I stride down the hill towards them.

“Did you not hear me?” I yell. “I said stop!”

Before I can say more, Winnie jumps back up to her feet and flings her arms around me, squeezing me so tight I can hardly breathe.

“Rhi, you’re okay?” I can hear tears in her voice and I laugh, pulling away to look at my friend. I can’t help smiling into her worried face.

“Of course, I’m okay.”

“He didn’t hurt you? He didn’t … Oh stars, I’ve been so worried about you and–”

But I don’t hear the rest of her rambled words because Stone is pulling her off me and wrapping me in his own arms.

“Thank fuck,” he mutters, hugging me against his chest, one hand pressing the back of my head, the other the small of my back. I bury my face into my mate’s jacket and inhale his scent, overwhelmed to be back in his arms. He kisses the crown of my head and I shake, relief suddenly flooding through me. There was a little part of me, a secret part I tried to suppress, that wondered if I’d ever see him again.

The relief lasts precisely one second and then I remember my other mate. Azlan.

I peek out from Stone’s jacket and see that mate, not striding towards me, but up the hill with a murderous look on his face.

I wriggle free of Stone and chase after him.

“What are you doing?” I cry, struggling to catch up with him.

“What else? Going to finish him off.”

“No, you’re not,” I say. I don’t think he even hears me and I pick up my pace, racing to catch him. I grab his arm, just as he halts.

Renzo is sitting cross-legged on the ground, Pip curled up in his lap.

“Hey man,” Renzo says, “what’s up?”

Azlan growls and lifts his hand but I catch it in mine and yank it back down.

“Rhianna,” he hisses, “let go of me. I’m going to kill him.”

“No, you’re not,” I say, stepping between the two men.

“Rhianna!” he growls, sounding more like a rabid wolf than a human man.

“You’re not going to kill him. You’re not going to hurt him. I won’t let you.”

Pain washes across the man in black’s face. “Rhi, he tried to kill you – he nearly killed you! I held you in my arms and felt you slipping away. Do you have any idea how that felt? Do you think I’d stand here and risk him doing it again?”

“You’re going to have to, Azlan.”

“Rhianna, I don’t know what he’s told you. What he’s said. But this man is a killer. A known psychopath,” he says as Stone comes to stand alongside him.

“Azlan, you’ve killed people. I’ve killed people,” I say, repeating the assassin’s argument.

“Don’t tell me, sweetheart,” Stone says, crossing his arms over his chest. “You’ve succumbed to Stockholm Syndrome.”

“This isn’t Stockholm Syndrome, or whatever …” I wave my hands in frustration. “This is me asking you not to kill the man who saved me at the academy, he brought me somewhere safe and has been looking out for me ever since.”

“Him?” Stone says, staring down at Renzo with obvious disgust.