Page 175 of This Blood that Bonds Us

With my heart racing, I shook the bars of my iron cage. I wasn’t strong enough to bend them by myself, and no amount of sure will was budging them.

“Will, can you hear me?”

Will busied himself with scratching at the wall, not paying attention in the slightest.

“I need your help.”

“Fuck off.”

“Please help me. Look. I’ve already bent the bar a little. If you just help me, I’ll get you out. I’ll make sure you get to Her. Wouldn’t that be great?”

He stopped carving into the stone. “You’ll take me to Her?”

“Yes! And you can have all the blood you want. Just come over here and reach into my cage and pull on this bar while I pull this other one.”

I blinked, then William was in front of me on the other side of the bars. “I’ll kill you if you touch Her.”

“I don’t care about Her. I have to get to Aaron. Just help me.”

William reached for the other bar, and I pulled with all my might on mine. The hole to fit in was tight, but I slipped out.

“Okay. Help me now,” he said.

William had more energy than I’d seen all day as he pulled at the bars of his enclosure.

“Sorry. I’ll come back for you. I promise.”

“You bitch!” he called, but I was already up at the top of the stairs running as fast as my feet would take me.

The only light left in the sky was from the moon and the northern lights overhead. I scanned the ground, looking at all the fallen. They could be anywhere, but my body seemed to know where to go. The top of the cathedral served as my beacon in the night. All I could hear was my breath while the strong scent of blood hung in the air.

The front of the cathedral had been blown open, and the rubble was all over the lawn. From inside, the remnants of flickering candlelight illuminated my path.

My eyes settled on an image I’d never be able to scrub from my memory.

Zach and Luke leaned over two bodies on the floor.

My heart wasn’t beating.

It wasn’t real.

Aaron lay against the tile with a dagger straight through his chest. Eyes closed. Pale. Next to him, lay Presley. Unmoving.

A scream curdled in my throat. I wanted it to shake the building and tear down every stone and paned window until every piece crumpled into dust.

I was too late.

In less than a second, I was there, but Aaron’s warmth was already gone. I placed my hand on his chest and felt nothing. For minutes, I sobbed, unable to control the grief. It was just as I’d feared . . . I’d lost everything.

I pulled the dagger from his chest and went to work biting my wrist to pour my blood into his open wound. Then Presley’s. Nothing. No sound. I bit my other wrist. More blood. It had to work. Our blood was the same. Why wouldn’t it work?

“Kim.” Someone was talking to me and trying to grab me. I pushed them away.

How had I been too late to fix this? I’d done everything I was supposed to. It was all for nothing. They were gone. Along with every dream we had of leaving this place behind. I missed something. There was a solution I didn’t find. It had to be my fault somehow.

I clenched the bloody dagger in my hand and imagined shoving it through my own heart to be done with it all. There was nothing left.

Zach, Luke, and I were all together but utterly alone. Everything that meant anything was gone. Up at the altar, Ezra held the queen. She was offering Her blood to heal him.