Page 100 of The Last One Standing (Rogue X Ara #4)

ROGUE

A dagger in my side.

My blood caressed a blade.

A bloodstone swirled.

Then, it was ripped from my body, and I sank to my knees on a voiceless call, “Ara.”

Blinked a few times.

Iaso appeared behind her.

Calypso screamed.

Glass shattered, and shards of twinkling blue tumbled down like falling stars.

On the night when stars fall.

Pale creatures moved faster than light. Bit their throats. They blurred into a tangle of limbs and teeth and blades.

Calypso disappeared into the fountain in the center of the room.

More pale creatures poured from the shadows, but the humans—they never slowed. Never stopped. Gentle music flowed from a violin.

A loud roar snapped my eyes open wide.

Adonis clutched his chest and shouted words I couldn’t decipher. Delphia stood in front of Ara and Drakyth, chest heaving, nostrils flared.

Severance glowed in Ara’s left hand.

Her right arm hung at her side, her shoulder already bruised and swollen, her wrist?—

There was a shackle on her wrist.

He’d shackled her.

Red tinted my tunneling vision.

She screamed my name. I’m here.

The humans slowed to a halt. Looked around. Panicked.

Dark vines consumed the walls and ceilings. Pale bodies encased in thorns.

Screams ensued.

People fled in a blur of movement.

Ara, I tried to say. Sacrifice. I have Sacrifice.

But my mouth couldn’t move. Too dry. My lips wet. Cold.

I blinked, and she dropped in front of me, her mask gone and hair fallen.

She fumbled with the bracelet on my wrist. “It won’t open! It won’t—” She spun it around. “There’s no clasp.”

“It has to be spelled, then,” Iaso shouted.

“What did you do?” Delphia hissed.

“No,” Edana said from behind me. “No, it’s not. I didn’t.” She grunted, and the thud of a body followed. “The damned oath would’ve killed me.”

Drakyth uttered a sincere, “Sorry,” before he closed his fingers around my hand and crushed.

Ara gasped, but it was lost to my roar as he broke the bones in my hand and slid that too-tight band over the shattered mess.

He dropped the bracelet and spun to swing his sword. A head rolled to join the iron circle on the checkered tile.

My magic flared in a burst of flames.

We had minutes before that damned moon rose, but until then, wyvern voices roared in my skull. Power rushed through my veins. My eyes flickered. Blood boiled. Scales covered me in an impenetrable armor—but not Ara.

Why not Ara?

The shackle had to be spell-bound.

I fell forward to my hands and knees, then collapsed when my broken hand gave way. Something cool smacked my cheek.

It warmed as stickiness pooled, and I met sweet, silver eyes.

Terrified, sparkling eyes.

“Rogue.” She shook my shoulder. Tried to lift me.

Am I on the floor?

She was wrenched off me. I reached for her as she kicked and screamed, but Adonis dragged her away by her hair, limping with each step, his face coated in red, and?—

Drakyth slid in front of him. Scales armored him, too.

Adonis held a knife to Ara’s throat.

Gritting my teeth, I pushed myself up and spat out a mouthful of blood.

“So, it is you,” Adonis uttered to Drakyth. “You’re alive.”

“Aye, boy.” He scowled and leveled his sword at Adonis. “Drop her.”

Iaso extended a hand to me. I took it without looking away from Ara, and she pulled me to my feet. Flames climbed my legs, smoke rising all around us.

“No,” Adonis seethed. “No, she’s going to help me fix my mistake. You’ll see. You’ll thank me. You’ll all fucking thank me !”

A pale creature—a Puer Mortis flung onto Drakyth’s back and pierced his throat with its teeth. Another one stabbed Edana with its claws, but she spun with a scream and bit its neck with teeth of her own.

My fingers probed the wound in my gut, my heartbeat like a distant drum, fast and loud.

It couldn’t have been Sacrifice that he stabbed me with. It was still sheathed at my hip, and Adonis couldn’t kill me like this.

He needed my life, and he knew I’d follow her.

“Rogue!” Ara screamed.

I tried to follow her, took one sluggish step, then another, but blood soaked through my clothes.

I fell to one knee, my feet too numb and cold. My vision tunneled on Ara, dark around the edges, but not too dark to notice her shackle—or the lack of one.

It was gone.

My eyes tried to roll, my head spun, but I forced my gaze to hers.

In the blink of an eye, silver irises flashed white.

Iaso slammed her palm into my stomach and set fire to my insides.