Page 76 of Third Offense

But I’d recently taken the elixir. It always left me off-balance and disoriented afterward.

For some reason, I hadn’t cared about that until now.

Finally,that voice growled, making me dizzy.

What’s happening?

Dark spots glittered over my vision as my lungs demanded air. The sense of wrongness crushed in all around me like the ocean had claimed me, refusing to let me go now that I’d realized something was wrong.

But I wasn’t alone. No, I was never really alone.

My father’s voice echoed inside my head.

Do you see?

The ocean seemed to spit me out at that moment and I gasped for air, coughed—andopened my eyes.

It was as if I could see for the first time in days. Just for a moment, it was all clear.

Nora warriors.

A portal in the ocean.

An army.My eyes widened and a scream lodged in my water-clogged throat.

Wake up!my father shouted.And run!

Sorin! Zian!I called for my mates, my mouth refusing to work. Or my body. I… I couldn’t… I was whirling, confused, upside down,drowning.

Don’t fail me,my father threatened.Not after everything I’ve given you.

Fuck you,I snarled back at him, my gaze finding the warriors again. They blinked in and out of my vision as something ensnared me from behind.

Something hard.

Muscular.

An arm.

But I was swimming the wrong way. It was taking me down. Underwater.Killing me.

I tried to fight, my nails biting into the flesh as I screamed soundlessly beneath the waves. Only to be yanked above the water. “Breathe,” Sorin demanded, his lips at my ear, making me blink.

I gasped, my lungs screeching at the need for air as my mind fogged over with the memory and reality and whatever the fuck mirage surrounded us.

Because the soldiers were gone.

The portal had disappeared.

A bad dream?I wondered, frowning.

Do you see?that voice echoed in my head, my father’s presence suffocating me once more.

I blinked, my lips parting as I saw the mirage fade again, revealing the portal beyond.

A Nora stood nearby, his lips curling into a cruel smirk as he watched my mates drag me to shore. He wasn’t watching me at all, butthem. And a murderous rage glimmered in his eyes.

Then he disappeared again behind a cloak of blue sky. All of them did. The soldiers and the portal, too.