Page 114 of Seared Fates

“Damnit!” Summer spits out. “I thought we had more time.”

“He’s already turning into a ghoul?” Ramy shouts, frantic.

Summer ignores them both, her face twisted with something that resembles angry guilt as she looks Kai over. “Why didn’t you just tell me you had the fucking spellbook…” she whispers, voice shaking and eyes wet.

“Summer! How long do we have?” I shout, having no time for the blame game, while I’m losing my mate.

She sucks a breath in, then shoots me a hard look.

“Hours,” she says between gritted teeth. “Three if we’re lucky.”

Golden releases a strangled noise and pushes past Ramy to fall to his knees, holding my mate's tear-stained cheeks in his shaking palms. Unsaid words passing between the two friends.

“You said we had longer!” I snarl. My fist collides with the wall, and pieces of plaster rain down.

“If he were human, yes,” Summer replies. “I thought the same rules applied, b-but—” Summer squeezes her eyes shut, Ramy lays a hand on her shoulder, and she seems to gather strength from him, laying her hand over his. The next time I see her eyes, there’s fire within the brown. “We’re out of time.”

My fangs slide out, and a growl, deadly low, cracks free from my chest. “Ramy, call Rurik and tell him we’re coming. This bullshit ends now.”

“Kai won’t survive putting his soul back!” Summer screams. “This can’t be happening, I thought we had more time!”

Ignoring her, I drop to my knees beside Golden and lean my face to Kai’s. Kissing his clammy forehead.

“My little prince,” I say, voice filled with as much love as I can gather, and he looks at me, forehead wrinkled in pain and eyes swimming. “I’m so sorry, but you’ve got to make the choice now.”

I can’t live without Kai. I will not. Whatever his choice, I’ll respect—and follow. To the bitter fucking end.

Kai shudders, face drained of blood and drenched in a cold sweat. His pale jade eyes locked with mine.

He nods once, and I release the breath I’d been holding.

“Let’s go,” I say, picking Kai up bridal-style.

In a few short hours, Kai will be better, his soul restored. While Emma’s body rots in the trash, her filthy blood on my hands.

There is no room for any other possibility.

Chapter forty-one

Kai

Pain clogs my throat. Flays my skin with rusted blades.

The world fades in and out.

I’m floating, I just don’t know how.

Maybe I’ve always floated…

There’s a sound and, disoriented, I reach for it—grasping for anything familiar.

“You will be okay.” A voice comes from somewhere in the fog. Soft. Unwavering. Ramy? “Vidar promised me.”

“You’re a fucking badass, Kai, alright? And you’re coming home!” Golden, I realise, and he’s draping something over my shoulders.

They may say something else. I try to sieve through the stomach-churning confusion and nerve-searing pain, yet shapes melt and sound loses meaning, as I continue to float towards a dark sky.

There’s a slam. A roar. The smell of chemicals and metal. I don’t bother to decipher any of it, too focused on inhaling something cold and perfect.