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e her relationship with Davian Or s for the king And while they were difficult to reconcile, they weren’t crude or false They sure as hell weren’t transient
Before leaving, Michael said, “Think about what you’ve gotten yourself into, Jade It could turn out disastrously for you”
She wanted to throw so at the door he closed behind hiht She continued to fume over the situation when it dawned on her that Michael shouldn’t be this far outside the village on his own Grabbing her weapon, she raced out of the cottage
“Michael, wait!” she insisted “Let et my coat and I’ll ith you” He didn’t slon “Michael! You stubborn ass—”
A sudden burst of flaained her footing, thanks to her ith Toran She rushed forward as the fire wraith appeared and lit the dark night His horse galloped toward Michael, sending snow flying in every direction The ht to the bone
“Move!” she screamed at Michael
The wraith’s ed and its shoulder clipped Michael as it whizzed past hiround with a sharp yelp of pain
“Michael!”
Jade couldn’t get to hi toward her, its nostrils flaring and foa from its bared teeth She lifted the sith both hands, prepared to fight But a fireball expelled fro heat surged down the blade to the hilt
Jade cried out from the burn she received and dropped the sword She fell to her knees and pressed her hands against the snow as agony lanced through her
Without giving her time to catch her breath, the horse lurched The flames around the cloak of the wraith and in his eye sockets vanished Clothed in black, he was iered, skeletal hand that shot out of a sleeve
With a death grip on her upper arh the woods, his thundering hooves reverberating all around them
The demonic beast cut a path in the dense forest Tree liashes and shredding her sweater as she tried to shield her face Terror seized her soul as the horse wove its way through the dense foliage with such speed, the surroundings became a blur She closed her eyes and continued to battle the branches tearing viciously at her flesh
Finally, they broke free of the woods and she opened her eyes—to find herself covered in blood The brutal sting of her injuries stole her breath It was difficult for her to get her bearings, until they reached a clearing that lay before an abandoned, stone-walled church that had been built high above a concrete monument The house of worship had been set ablaze when the first renegade dee, shortly after it’d been established Every huht had perished, trapped inside
Jade’s pulse raged in her ears as she stared up at the restone steps led to the scorched steeple Despite the hidden by drifts, the horse she involuntarily rode reared and then pitched forward, taking the treacherous stairs with her on its back and the wraith floating weightlessly behind her