Chapter 113
Nix
Fear clogs my throat. Before me is nothing but water.
Just water.
I fight to stop.
I try to stop.
But Morell’s fingers are wrapped in my hair, and he’s pushing me forward.
Tears fill my vision.
From the pain.
From the sadness.
I don’t want it to end this way.
I don’t want to meet my end all alone.
The weight in my chest expands through my body.
It fills my limbs.
It reminds me that it’s here.
I am here.
My heart squeezes.
I know.
My heartbeat slows.
I breathe.
I stare straight forward.
I make him push me.
I make him make me.
The waves are so far away.
So far below.
But the sound of them…
I breathe.
I pretend the air is filled with mint.
I pretend I can feel Volik’s heat surrounding me.
I close my eyes and pretend he’s stroking my hair.
But the pain won’t let me forget.
And the waves are so loud.
A rock shifts under my shoe, and my eyes open.
My lungs seize.
There are only inches.
Just inches of rock in front of my toes.
Beyond that is nothing.
Straight down. Hundreds of feet to the roiling ocean.
Morell pushes me forward.
Pebbles bounce over the edge.
My shoes press into the rock.
I slide another inch forward.
There is nothing left.
No more room.
I try to reach back for him.
Try to stop him.
But then something cold presses against my throat.
“I’d stop fighting if I were you.”
I freeze. But he still nicks my skin.
I can feel the warmth of my blood as it trails down my throat, down my chest.
“We will watch until the sun goes out. Then it will be over.”
Morell is pressed against my back. His right hand is painfully gripping my hair. His left hand is pressing the dagger to my neck.
I saw the blade when he pulled it from the sheath at his side.
I saw it, and I knew.
My eyes close.
I don’t think I need to be stabbed through the heart with a magicked dagger to die.
I heal. My cuts from earlier are already sealed.
But I don’t think I heal fast enough.
I’m not a full vampire.
I think slitting my throat would be the end.
“I am going to tell you how to kill a vampire.”
“I don’t want to know that. I don’t want to know, Volik.”
“I am telling you so you are informed. So you know, if ever the worst happened.”
“What would be the worst?”
“If we are ever separated. But I would find you. I will always find you, Nixy. You are mine. Tell me you understand.”
“You will always come for me.”
My tears keep falling.
Because I know what I have to do.
I have to create more time.
I open my eyes, seeing the sliver of sunset on the horizon.
My hands shake.
My lungs struggle to pull in the breath I need.
My—
Something presses against my heart in my chest.
Something tries to hold the beat steady.
Volik.
A crack bursts through the air. And we rock back from the force.
And then Volik is there.
Here.
Floating in the air fifty feet out, over the water, is my mate.
Morell shouts as he sends out a pulse of power. But I don’t hear him.
He digs his dagger into my skin. He pushes against me, putting my toes back on the ledge. But I don’t look down.
I don’t look away from Volik.