Page 137 of Destined Dawn

“I drained it,” I hear myself say, collapsing onto the floor, the grass soft against my cheek. “I guess you didn’t know everything about me, after all. My father – the Black Prince – was a Nosferatu. Oh, and by the way, I’ve no interest in ruling anywhere.”

“No!” he screams, and I feel his fists gripping my sweater, shaking my body. But I’m drifting away, drifting into the abyss.

52

Azlan

“Rhianna!”I cry out as I watch my little mate tumble from the dragon high above us.

I lift my hand, driving my magic through the sky, attempting to catch her.

She’s too far, too far away.

I start running, crashing through those that lie in wait in front of me, striking at them indiscriminately, running as hard as I can as if I hope I can catch her, as if I hope I can reach her in time.

But I know I can’t. She’s too far away. And I am too slow. Too damn slow.

I’m resigned to watch her fall, hopeless and useless.

I watch the woman I love, the person I care most about in all the world, the most precious thing inmy life, fall through the sky and there is nothing I can do to save her, to help her.

I run anyway, run as she falls and when she hits the ground, I don’t see it, her body lost in the distance, but I feel it. I feel the impact hard against her tiny body and I stumble to my knees.

“Rhianna!”

Please no, please don’t take her from me. I’ll do anything, anything at all. Take me, take me instead.

I stare at the grass beneath me. The world spins. Noise roars in my ears. Oxygen burns in my throat.

And then I feel her, feel her through the bond.

Not dead.

Alive.

I drag myself back up onto my feet and I’m running again.

She’s hurt, I can feel it. Hurting and in pain. I need to get to her.

I don’t know exactly where she landed but I follow the pull of my bond, so familiar, so comforting it’s hard to remember a time when I begrudged it. And yet I did. Stupid fool.

It is – Rhianna is – the best thing that’s happened to me in my life and I won’t lose her now.

I sprint down the hill, skidding and stumbling in my haste, blasting anyone in my way, desperate to reach her and as I do, the gray clouds – that dark magic – my uncle conjured melt away and rays of light pierce the sky, catch the golden scales of the dragon in the sky high above.

I don’t know what it means. And I don’t care. All I care about is reaching her.

The bond pulls me out to the east, away from thescorched land, the dead soldiers and those that remain, and out to the fields I drove her through on my bike.

I crash through hedgerows and out into a field of grass and then I spy them.

Rhianna and my uncle.

She’s on her feet, and I sigh in relief, but only for a moment because then she’s falling again, that bastard on top of her, shaking at her limp body.

I fire a bolt of magic at him. It takes him by surprise, hitting the side of his body and pummeling him backward onto the ground. He doesn’t fire back, doesn’t strike out and as I rush closer, I understand why. There’s nothing there. His aura of magic – so bold and so strong – is gone.

I tumble down onto my knees beside Rhianna.