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She clutched strands fro When they reached the landing, she had but a moed the river in front of it and the forest beyond, at the base of the ridge where Darien’s castle sat She screamed for him

A heartbeat later, the wraith threw her froround With the roof burnt, the thick bank of snow coating the hard floor broke her fall But her blood stained the pristine white

Her face and ar theers wrapped around her neck and he lifted her off the ground, only to launch her across the span of the church where her backside crashed against the remainder of a decayed, stone wall

Her strangled cry of agony pierced the quiet night as she sluain She felt the blood trickle down the nape of her neck from a laceration at the base of her head And froh every inch of her had been beaten to a pulp

The pain was excruciating, but she tried to stand The wraith was not done with her He hauled her up one ranite On her back, with the wind knocked out of her, she couldn’t suck in a breath, ertips grazed her skin above her left breast, slicing it open

A shrill, terror-laden sound erupted from within her The wraith hovered over her as he seemed to penetrate tissue in search of her heart Her eyes nearly rolled into the back of her head The agony was so unbearable, she couldn’t detect a single ounce of her that wasn’t burning with pain

“Jade!”

She heard Darien’s voice in the distance Too far off, she surmised, for him to help her Yet she whispered his name

Her eyelids becaic death was not one she’d allowed herself to think of, but so of the world in which she lived—and the trouble she’d unwittingly invited into her life o

The wraith’s hand moved from her chest, but she didn’t bother to open her eyes to see what he was up to next She could barely breathe, let alone fight hi it impossible to focus on one particular injury to heal first They were all too severe, the dae soul deep, it seemed

Yet when the fiery sensations suddenly came from outside her body, her eyes snapped open The wraith had taken his fla heatthe thick layer on the pew The water instantly boiled and she howled as it burned her skin through her sweater Her body convulsed with violent seizures, causing her to fall off the granite bench

“Jade!”

Over the ringing in her ears, she heard Darien’s voice again and the unsheathing of a sword She rolled onto her back, finding a hint of relief on her scalded skin as the snow penetrated her sweater

“Focus!”

Staring up at the sky, she realized she had no desire to do as he commanded A few ony She wouldn’t heal enough in her unconscious state to ever wake There was too e and no way to concentrate on the individual wounds