Page 132 of Third Offense

I shrieked, but Ketos’s hand covered my mouth as the two men carried me to the library.

Overhead, I heard shouts. Growls. Murderous sounds.

But still Auric flew, his wings reminding me of a glorious sun, flickering in and out of the sky.

Tears pooled in my gaze as I struggled, desperate to reach him, to help him, to bring himback. He was my mate. My soul. What was he thinking?

Auric!I screamed for him, my energy threatening to unravel, to create a shield between me and those carrying me.

But a blanket of darkness suffocated my attempt, confusing me as Novak flew down a set of old stairs.

My windows were gone.

My view of the sky having disappeared.

The tunnels, I realized, understanding what he was doing, but not accepting it.

I bit Ketos’s hand hard enough to make him bleed. But he didn’t release me.

How could you?I demanded with a look.How could you do this? How could you sacrifice him?

Novak growled against my back.

I responded with a growl of my own.

Then I tried to shove them away with my energy, only for Ketos to wrap me up in a net of his own.

I snarled like an ensnared animal, screaming for them to release me, to let me help Auric. For them to help him.

Don’t do this! Don’t leave him there to die!

Novak started flying, soaring through the hallways with Ketos on his tail.

“I hate you,” I told them both, furious that they were doing this. “I’m never going to forgive you for this!”

“I know,” Novak said quietly, those two words striking me in the heart. Because in them, I heard his inability to forgive himself.

Because he knew.

He knewwhat was going to happen.

What Auric had just done.

This grand sacrifice, this painful, fucking decision, to put us before him. To give up his own life for ours.

I couldn’t see, my eyes blurred with so many unshed angry tears that I started to rant and rage again. Threatening Ketos. Threatening Novak.

While inside… inside I was dying.

I was lost.

I was belittled to the naïve, small girl I’d once been. The teenager pining for her guard. For the man she was never supposed to love. The man she was neverallowedto love.

The man the adult version of her had chosen anyway, despite all the odds, despite all warnings not to.

The man she could now feel slipping from her very being.

Auric, I whispered, my soul fracturing inside me.Don’t leave me, Auric. Don’t leave us. Please. Gods, please…