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Merrick

“ W ife?” The villager’s eyes widened as he took in Reyla’s form. “You’re a lucky man.”

“I will belong to this woman even after the last cinder of my soul has blown away.”

Reyla stood half over me, scanning the area with sharp eyes before she straightened and extended a blood-streaked hand my way.

“Lounging around on that delectable ass again, are you, my king?” she drawled.

“My ass is delectable. I’m glad you’re confirming that fact.” I took her hand, and she tugged me up. She snaked forward to grab my sword from the cobblestones, handing it to me hilt first, her gaze sweeping the open marketplace again. “You might want to stop tossing this pretty weapon around.”

No borgons nearby—for now. I could hear the scrape of their claws, however. Like all the others I’d battled, they’d join us soon. Otherwise, we’d hunt them down and destroy them. For some reason, they were drawn to this area. They’d kept swarming up the alleys, toppling small buildings to reach the market.

I slid my hand beneath her hair, encircling her nape, and dragged her hard against me. My mouth fell on hers, and I kissed her with all the feral need scorching through my veins.

If only I could keep kissing her forever.

A shriek rang out, and I stepped away, grinning at the stunned way she looked at me, as if nothing and no one else existed but me.

My mate was here, and she would battle beside me.

Her kiss still burned on my lips as I tightened my grip on my sword, her bloodied handprint smeared across my wrist guard like a brand. Another shriek ripped up the street leading in this direction, jolting me back to the fight.

“Left,” Reyla snapped, spinning past me to drive her sword between a borgon’s ribs. The creature howled, jerking as she twisted her weapon free with a feral grin that seared my chest with pride. While she eliminated the threat, I surged the other way, putting my back to hers, intercepting a borgon roaring toward us.

My blade cleaved through its forearm, the fire I willed into the steel cracking like dried wood meeting flames, severing the limb. I twisted the hilt and leaped, driving the blade up through its neck, heat blasting through fur and sinew until the head swung to the ground with a sickening thump. Its blood sprayed onto the cobblestones as its body toppled.

Reyla pivoted toward me .

A borgon lunged for my blind side, its claws already slicing through the air. Before I could react, she was there, her sword flashing faster than I could follow. She leaped, opening the creature’s throat with one clean sweep. The beast dropped to the cobblestones, convulsing as blood spilled from the wound in grotesque bursts.

“You’re welcome,” she said, her breathing heavy and her grin as sharp as the blade she wielded like a master.

My chest tightened. I wanted to say something—wanted her to know I trusted no one else to guard my back.

I wanted to shout that I loved her, something I was not allowed to do.

Not yet. Maybe never.

The marketplace had been transformed into an open graveyard, the stone slick with blood and littered with fallen bodies, both fae and borgon. I focused on the flashes of movement still darting through the smoke-choked air.

I sent power into every strike, but my body was tiring. At my command, the cobblestone street buckled, and roots surged up from the earth. Thick, gnarled vines wove around a borgon to my right, binding its limbs before jerking hard enough to sever them from its body. Its screech was drowned by the snarl of a blade as a villager darted in to slit its throat with a farming sickle.

To my right, a woman flung a hammer toward a looming borgon. I stepped into the fight before the beast could crush her, leaping to slam my foot into the creature’s chest, curling air around me to add magical force to the kick. The borgon skidded back, its claws scraping the street before I drove the hilt of my blade into its body, sending spikes of ice through its ribs.

As I landed on the cobblestones again, Reyla whipped to my side, the blades I'd given her spinning in a whirl as she sprang up and cut down two borgons trying to flank me.

“They’re thinning,” she called, her voice hoarse .

It could be true, though I didn’t trust it. Too many still moved beyond the flames, their forms twisting as they prowled this way.

“Where’s your sword?”

“Stuck in a borgon. Couldn’t get it out.” She held up her blades. “These’ll do.”

They’d breached the wall earlier and invaded, rampaging through the streets and setting buildings ablaze with their fire. So many had died already, and the city was crumbling around us.

I’d fought to defeat them, but they kept coming, swarming toward the marketplace.

Now the sun barely hovered above the horizon. It would slip away soon, taking me with it, and Lorant would step into my place. He’d watch out for my wildfire. Keep her safe. And finish this if he could.

I adjusted my grip on my sword and flared my shoulders, drawing heat and flame from the licking embers of a burning stall. It took longer than I liked for my magic to respond, but my blade glowed brighter, fire spiraling up the length. I rushed toward a pair of borgons lurching from an alley and launched a wave of molten flame at them. It surged like a tidal wave, crashing over them with a hiss. They shrieked as their bodies incinerated under the torrent.

Behind me, Reyla dispatched another. We moved like threads pulled taut, crossing paths but always staying close enough to the other for added protection. Her strikes were swift and calculated to use as little energy as possible. Despite the furor around me, I caught myself staring at her. This woman battled like a legend, and I still couldn't believe that she was here, that she might one day be mine.

“How many more?” Her voice jerked me back into the moment .

“Too many,” I growled, catching her wrist to pull her into my side so I could kiss her forehead.

We spun as one when another rush of borgons tore up the alley, sending the barricade flying. They rampaged through the marketplace’s charred remains, their snarls filling the air. People fighting near us faltered. This wave wasn’t like the last, and we were all so exhausted it was hard to keep moving.

The pack churned forward, their enormous leader stepping through the smoke like a storm. Twice as large as the ones we’d faced, its fur gleamed char black under the firelight and its jagged, open maw gnashed teeth in anticipation.

Reyla squared next to me, her blades poised. “That’s new.”

“We’ve handled worse.”

“Have we?” she spat without turning her head.

A smaller borgon broke free, darting toward a villager. With a grunt, I surged after it, but it spun mid-stride, its claws catching my ribs and throwing me hard onto the cobblestones.

My vision blurred. Blood seeped from my wounds, warm and much too fresh.

The creature loomed over me, drool oozing down its jagged teeth as it struck.

Steel flashed, arms darting through the smoke with daggers flashing. Reyla buried her blades in the beast’s throat. The borgon toppled to the ground beside me, its gargled snarl the last sound it made as she lobbed its head from its shoulders.

Reyla stooped down, her face unreadable beyond the sweat and ash coating her cheeks. “Up.” She latched onto my arm and tugged, and I did my best to rise, but I only made it to my knees before I sagged back onto the cobblestones.

I bit back a howl.

“Merrick?” she cried with a catch in her voice .

She slammed onto her knees beside me and ripped away my tunic, exposing my belly. My chest.

Her breath hissed out. “Merrick, no. No!”

I drew in power to heal myself and roared it toward the wound I suspected could be lethal. Agony clutched my spine and shook me.

When my power fizzled out too fast, my mind swam.

Fuck, fuck.

I didn't like this. Not one bit.

The villagers continued to battle around us while their king lay dying.

I used some of my strength to reach up to stroke Reyla's lovely face. Tears streaked through the blood and soot on her cheeks, and I struggled to nudge them away.

“Don't,” I groaned. “Get up. Fight. I'll…drag myself off to the side. Wait there for you.”

I pulled in more power and sent it toward my wound that continued to pulse, my lifeblood oozing from the long slash. The fire inside me licked against the chill spreading through my chest, but I couldn’t. Quite. Heal myself.

I met her gaze, fighting the weight of what this must mean.

Who would've thought I'd end this way? I thought we had four weeks left, that I'd at least be with her until I turned thirty.

Blood drained faster from my side.

“Fuck, Merrick, no,” she growled.

While the world slashed and burned around us and the enormous borgon lurched closer to finish the rest of us off, she pinched her eyes closed.

I could feel her call in power. She laid her hand on my abdomen and a subtle burn seared into me as she shoved the energy my way .

But something inside me, something deeper and insidious, continued to bleed.

With a feral snarl, she drew in more power and blasted it around me. I’d bet anything she was trying to flit us to the castle healers.

The cobblestones beneath me kept biting into my spine.

“A healer,” she shrieked, her head spiraling around. “We need a healer now. Please!” Facing me again, she leaned close and kissed my neck. “Stay with me, Merrick. Please. By the fates, don’t leave. You can’t die.” She cupped my cheeks, turning my head to make me meet her gaze. “You hear me? You’re going to stay with me. Get off that ass and stand beside me. I’ll get you out of here. We’ll run far away and find a place that’s safe.”

Such a place didn’t exist, but I didn’t want to tell her that. Fate had caught up to me, and it would not let me go.

Most of all, I hated that she’d watch two men she cared for die.

“Didn’t want this,” I whispered. “Wanted so…much more.” Love. A lifetime. A chance to be something for this woman alone.

The borgons stomped closer. Reyla had to get up and protect herself or she’d be lying beside me.

“Go.” I tried to nudge her with my hand, but it flopped uselessly onto my belly, making blood squirt from my wound. “Run. Leave. Don’t let them get you.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” she growled. “And neither are you.” The crack in her voice widened, and her pain spilled out. “Please, Merrick. Please. Stay with me. I need you.”

“I love you.” I coughed, gagged, struggled to get the words out through the curse. Forbidden to tell her, I’d had to hold the words back.

Now I let them blaze.

“I love you.” I said it again. Whispered it, actually, because my throat was closing off and my blood… Well, that was draining from me much too quickly. It was rather ironic that this would do what the curse couldn’t.

“I will always…love you, Wildfire,” I croaked. “Please. Remember me?”

“Merrick.” Fresh, bitter tears poured down her face highlighted in the golden glow of my last sunset. “You can’t leave. I love you. You hear me? I love you. Always.”

The sun slipped away…

…And so did I.