Page 79 of The Last One Standing (Rogue X Ara #4)

ROGUE

I caught Ara as she went rigid, spine bowing, eyes rolling back.

My heart thundered as viciously as her storms above. Rain sliced at our skin as it blew sideways, waves thrashing and snarling at the soaked beach like a starved beast fighting for its prey.

Dozens of wyverns woke. Several took flight, but it was Guardian who asked, What happened?

Instead of answering with words, I flooded them with everything I had.

Ara, unconscious in my arms.

Her terror running rampant in my veins.

Calypso being beaten senseless by Iaso’s fists.

An echo of words played over and over.

“She told him you were my mate.”

Fury shot down our connection before I slammed a wall down and severed my mind from theirs.

I couldn’t handle any other emotions. Ara screamed in my skull, wrenched knots in my gut, and sent waves of adrenaline through my veins. Tingling started in my chest, the alarming burn in my lungs.

A breath left Ara’s lips before she went lax, and I scooped her up, shielding her face from the freezing rain.

Another crack of lightning illuminated a massive creature as it emerged from the dense clouds, seemingly unfazed by the storm ravaging the skies he dove from.

Guardian hit the ground in an explosion of sand. Iaso had a split second to dive out of the way, Calypso’s bloodied mouth falling open in what I assumed would’ve been a scream, but no sound managed to escape before Guardian’s maw clamped around her midsection.

He flung her to the side, and a wet thud hit the ground behind us, but we were long gone. I sprinted to the castle with Ara’s limp body, faint whimpers of pain or discomfort escaping her, each one burrowing further into my chest.

“You’ll be okay,” I whispered. “It’s going to be okay.”

Her eyes snapped open wide, crackling but unseeing as she clutched the collar of my shirt so tightly, her fist trembled.

“He knew.” Her voice was barely a whisper, distant and agonizing. “He knew. ”

“I know, baby,” I whispered, not slowing when we entered Draig Hearth. I climbed the stairs two at a time and strode to our chambers.

I kicked the door open and laid her on the bed before sinking to my knees at her side, running the backs of my fingers over her cheek.

Fresh tears poured as she stared straight through me, looking far beyond this room, the storm surge matching the flare in her eyes.

“No,” she breathed. “No, he knew…everything, and we were just…puzzle pieces. Misplaced until we weren’t. Until we fell exactly into place, exactly where he intended.”

“No,” I murmured, smoothing her hair away from her face, the gentle movement in stark contrast to the frantic energy that built beneath my skin. My dragon clawed at the confines of my Fae form, heat rising, tension pulling my muscles taut.

All I could think to say was no. No what? No, we’re not puzzle pieces? I didn’t know what vision plagued her this time, if it was real or fabricated, memory or nightmare, but if we were puzzle pieces, then so was Adonis, and we weren’t in his puzzle.

This would be one played by fate, and fate was on our side. The Goddess had said so herself.

Either way, Ara and I would be the only two fucking pieces left at the end of it all. I’d scorch the rest into unrecognizable ash if I had to.

The light seeped from her eyes, and she blinked slowly.

“Hey.” I ran my hand over her hair again. “Stay with me, all right? Stay here with me.”

“Sleep.” Dull silver eyes met mine. Soaked hair and clothing clung to her, lips tinged blue, but she didn’t shiver. She didn’t move or fight for warmth. Her lashes fluttered. “I have to…sleep.”

Fire devoured her clothing and steamed the water off her skin. The blankets burned in the process, but I controlled the flames before they could swallow the entirety of the bed. My skin heated. The room heated. She heated until color returned to her skin.

She released a sigh, but her eyes didn’t reopen.

My chest tightened.

“I love you,” I rasped. “I love you.”

She hadn’t heard me, though.

Her eyes didn’t reopen, and she hadn’t heard me.

She’s sleeping. Just sleeping.

I pressed a kiss to her forehead, my jaw tight and fingers trembling as I felt her pulse point. Her heartbeat was slow but steady.

With a hard swallow, I stood and watched the rise and fall of her chest, counted five breaths, then forced myself to look away. Otherwise, I’d spend the rest of the night staring.

I looked out the window to see the steady downpour of what now appeared to be hail, and a newfound rage seeped beneath my skin. Not the rapidly consuming inferno I was accustomed to. Slower, deeper, smoldering and catching every fiber of my being, spilling out through my eyes.

The room was cast in flickering red, my pupils slitted.

My tongue ran along the elongated tips of my canines.

We hadn’t had time to test the limits of our blood oath yet, how far we could be separated, or the effect it would have when we pushed too far—but we were about to. I opened the door, glanced back at Ara, still fast asleep, and forced myself into the hallway.

I asked Guardian, Is she dead—as dead as can be?

For now, he growled.

I made it to Iaso’s chambers without any apparent symptoms from the blood oath. I only hoped Ara was spared in her sleep, because Calypso needed to be dealt with by my hands.

Thin beams of moonlight sliced through Iaso’s chambers, her soft cries loud in the otherwise silent room.

Too many people.

My fists balled at my sides. Scales consumed my neck and torso, talons elongating as my control slipped, my dragon gaining traction.

Delphia stood at the edge of the room, hands covering her mouth. Near her, Drakyth leaned on the table with his arms crossed over his chest.

He met my gaze first and shook his head, not in disapproval of me but of her.

Ewan hunched over a sobbing Iaso, his hand rubbing her back while she knelt over what remained of her sister, knuckles bloodied and swollen.

“Who do you cry for, Iaso?” My voice was not my own. Distant. Low. More animal than Fae. “The loss of your sister, or the loss of your son?”

She whirled around and fell onto her ass, clutching a rag to her mouth. Calypso lay in two unmoving pieces, severed at the midsection.

Should’ve been worse. More damage. Less retrieved.

My eyes slid back to Iaso’s. Ewan’s hand stilled on her back, his forehead wrinkled, clearly struggling to process the scene before him.

Interesting, considering he swore his sword to Ara just months ago.

A growl reverberated deep within my chest, sparking in my throat until it glowed to match my eyes. Flames licked beneath my skin.

Iaso sucked in a steadying breath and stood, running her hands down her skirt. “I cry because I broke her nose and blackened both her eyes before…this happened.”

“Deserved,” was all I said.

Eternal fire , an ancient wyvern whispered, crawling from the pits he rotted in, his words hardly intelligible. Burning bones cannot heal.

My eyes flashed.

The eternal flame was a common commodity, lighting heaters and street lamps, anything that needed to burn longer than normal, but they were small fires of convenience.

I hadn’t considered weaponizing it.

“What use is she?” I asked, the question hard-earned over the urge to burn, burn, burn.

Iaso reared back. She blinked once, then looked at her sister’s mottled, swollen face.

Heat rose in the room, my patience and control wearing thin. Sweat beaded on her forehead. Condensation clung to her windows.

“Does she serve a purpose beyond simply existing?” I ground out, my last attempt at rationality.

Drakyth stepped closer. “And if she doesn’t?”

Iaso’s head turned to me at that.

“She helped Adonis. She told him who and what I was to Ara, that we were mates. She knew the entire time. Followed us into our home. Ate our food.” My blood boiled, but my lips twitched with a sadistic smile, revealing my sharpened teeth.

“If she doesn’t help in a way of equal value, which”—I shook my head with a dry laugh—“will be nearly impossible, I’m going to burn her bones in eternal flame. ”

Their expressions twisted in horror. Delphia gasped and retreated.

“Burning bones cannot heal,” I recited.

“She did what ?” Drakyth growled, his pupils narrowing to slits.

Finally, someone with a lick of fucking sense.

Iaso’s chest rose and fell quickly, her eyes wide. She looked from me to her sister and back. “I… I can test my tonics on her, discover which ingredients and concentrations are strong enough to cleave the connection to her magic, thus, Adonis’s.”

I mulled it over, tilting my head side to side. “Why do I need the tonic if burning works all the same?”

“Burning is the more guaranteed of the two,” Drakyth said, moving to stand at my flank. “She truly gave you up?”

“Offered my name on a silver fucking platter.”

Ewan’s blue eyes churned like angry seas, and I was suddenly distinctly aware of the water within my own body. Needles prodded along my veins, my heart straining, each beat more forceful. He’d thickened or slowed my blood.

I braced a hand on my chest and managed a bark of laughter between shallow breaths. I could’ve burned him alive before his next breath, but I didn’t have to. Not when Iaso’s golden eyes lit up and scanned what suddenly ailed me.

She swiveled to Ewan, recoiling from his touch. “He’s my son .”

Blood flowed again, each beat of my heart painful as it recovered, but I stood straighter, a lopsided grin on my face as I cocked a brow at Ewan.

If he didn’t hate me before, he despised me now.

Iaso turned her gaze on Drakyth and me, her golden eyes scalding in her anger. “Burning her for…forever is not more ‘guaranteed.’ It’s more inhumane.”

“I am not human, ” I bellowed, words becoming harder to articulate, rumbling in my throat. Not human. Not entirely Fae. “ We are not human. We cannot be humane. No more forgiveness. No more mercy.”

She already bled. Now, she needed to burn.

Burn.

Heat rolled off my skin while the flame in my chest wavered, blown by some unseen breath.

“Cruel, then,” Iaso spat.