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She sidestepped, dodging that first arrow-shaped boulder, the charred one fro for the tree! “There’s a pit between the roots!”
Still not hearing him, she skipped over the roots Thentoo late Her upper body jolted forward before she righted her balance
She murmured, “Thronos?” Even from this distance, he could hear her distinctly, felt the timbre of pure fear in her voice
Their eyes didn’t s Break the bones in one go or she dies “Just hold on! I’ for you!”
Every ravestone’s descent
Thrashing, kicking, sweat burning his eyes The gravestone snapped the lih atop the tree
Thronos’s bone cracked—earlier than before! I can do this, I can reach her! With one leg freed, he dared a look “I’
She knew a boulder that big would kill her She struggled wildly
“Just hold on!” He bit back yells as he cut, hacking through the bloody calftoo ernaut, crushing one liht on the one directly over Lanthe, not twenty feet above her head
A final defense
“Thronos?” She’d gone still, as if she feared o! I’s had been different,” she said, voice thick with tears
“They will be! Fight, Lanthe!”
Their eyes ave hio He took to the air, diving for her; she kept her gaze on hie
Craaaack The boulder crashed down He collided with it An instant too late
“NOOOOOOO!”
He dug his claws into the stone; using his wings for propulsion, he shoved with all the strength he had left Ruined my second chance!
He directed his five hundred years of hate—at hihts with his hten her, to sha his kind hadn’t been enough pain
I squandered what I was given, never co the treasure
She’s dead
Another shove Another And another And another He gave an agonized roar, clawing at the stone in a frenzy As he rahts taking flight in odd directions He recalled the end of that encounter he’d had with her mother
“Melanthe will never be what you need her to be You can’t break hter, and that’s the only way she’d love you”
Thronos sputtered, “I-I don’t want to break her!” Melanthe was perfect as she was!
“Then you’ll have to break yourself, hawkling”
Perfect, if only? Melanthe would be perfect
If only she were alive
As blood poured into his eyes, he closed the’s behind me, isn’t it?”
Thronos’s eyes shot open Melanthe was before hily beautiful, not ato rise, purple clouds in the background like a halo over her black hair
The hound’s howl
Hell conspired
Minutes later, the boulder was poised to fall above Lanthe
Thronos wasSlashes and puncture wounds covered him The reptilian predators in the brush that had snatched the first hellhound had conored that direction Won’t next tiet a next tiods listening: I will do this until I get it right I will do this for eternity if I have to, but I will save her
THIRTY-THREE
Lanthe toed Thronos’s convulsing body, then hopped back Her gaze darted fro for the threat
OneThe next, his eyes had rolled back in his head and he’d dropped like a rock He was now unconscious, seizing on the ground as if afflicted by a supernatural htmare sector? The noxious-air belt? The lyphs, and her translator was currently writhing, out cold on the path
Lowering clouds closed in, darkening theabove What to do? Despite his dickitry, she couldn’t just leave him like this
It was almost as if she felt the same kind of loyalty to Thronos that she did to Sabine But Sabine had never hurt her the way Thronos continued to do
Even so, Lanthe would drag him out of the zone All seven feet of him
“Thronos, you are such a pain in my ass,” she snapped at his unconscious forain! I want this noted”
Careful not to cross thehim toward her The instant she’d pulled his head out of the zone, his eyes shot open, locking on her “Melanthe?”
She dropped his feet; he scraaze around, as if danger was on the horizon He scented the air
Under his breath, he grated, “Not real?” The crazed look on his face had her backing away from him
Then he turned to her “Not real” He eased closer
“Uht rain, he reached for her, cupping her face with hands that shook His thuether, lips thinned
She’d seen this yearning expression before—after that three-day absence when she’d called hio, when he’d finally returned to their meadow, his eyes had told her, I’ve been pretty much lost without you
“I want your future, Melanthe,” he rasped now “I don’t care about the past We’ll work out the fking details”
Where was this coed—
His lips descended on hers As in her dreaainst her mouth He sounded like he’d die if she didn’t return his kiss
A clai-back kiss