Chapter 40
Gods, she hated him. Adara hated him so much. Hated that he could lie and cheat and toy with her so easily. Hated how her heart hammered relentlessly at the sight of him. Hated that after all they’d been through, he could so easily turn back into his cold, heartless self and leave her alone to die.
But what she hated most was how she still ran to him after being left to die in the middle of this cursed desert. His key was the only reason she was after him. If she didn’t need his key, if she didn’t need his knowledge of the Realm Fracturer, she’d leave him for dead.
Yet that thought hadn’t even occurred to her until she was upon the human-like monsters circling him.
Blood spattered on her face as Adara savagely cut her way through the fray.
Sword slashing throats, stabbing hearts, cutting through flesh and bone.
Adara didn’t bat an eye. She only kept her gaze straight ahead—where Dominic barely stood, with his frail body hanging limply from the ropes that held him tied to the trees—and continued her massacre, determined to reach him.
What had they done to him?
Fury ignited inside her heart. Fire flooded her veins, a thirst she could not quench. It wanted out—all of it—but the Ruins would not allow it. Those creatures had sucked all life and magic from this place the deeper into the desert they went.
The scar on her hand burned in response, as if the gods were reminding her of the Hel they’d rain down upon her if she broke her blood oath to Dominic.
That sole reason was what she kept repeating to herself.
She was doing this because she made a promise to keep him alive until this war of hearts was won.
When her eyes met his, panic seized Adara’s lungs, making breathing painful and sporadic as she assessed the damage.
Dominic’s hands were bound tightly by ropes hanging high above him, his wrists red and bleeding.
His body slumped toward the ground, only held aloft by the ropes binding him.
Blood coated him—so much blood that Adara couldn’t tell where his wounds were.
Crimson ran down his temples, his lips. One of his eyes was black and swollen shut. A knife protruded from his left leg.
Her heart raced. Each thundering beat like a hammer inside her chest. Magic wasn’t working here. He couldn’t heal himself.
They’ll pay for this, she vowed as she savagely cut her way across the sand.
Adara barely processed what she was doing as she slaughtered her way through the chaos, sending heads rolling, limbs falling, and blood spraying.
Her only thought was of him, Dominic, bleeding and weak and hurt.
Her eyes fixed on him, and she swore she saw a slight upward turn at the corners of his lips.
His eyes were alight with relief and something else she couldn’t recognize. Something like hope.
Adara’s only response was running between the monsters, slashing at anyone who neared as she approached Dominic.
A few feet from him, she paused, eyes trained on him.
Finally seeing him, face to face, without wrath flowing freely between the two of them, struck Adara like a physical blow.
It took a moment to catch her breath at the alluring sight of him, despite the gore coating him.
He stared back at her with a feverish glisten in his eyes she couldn’t wholly decipher.
She found herself frozen for a moment, remembering his betrayal.
How he left her unconscious and tied to a tree mere hours ago.
How he had every intention of breaking her.
How any kindness he’d shown to her was merely deception to win her key.
Dominic’s face fell. His eyes searched her own as his lips drooped in a frown. “Adara, untie me,” he demanded, a hint of worry in his exhausted voice. As if he thought her hesitation was final, that she enjoyed the sight of him in pain and had decided to watch him meet his demise.
A smirk curled her lips, relishing the power she held over him. She casually swung her sword up onto her shoulder, an expression of contemplation on her face. “In a moment, I’m enjoying the sight of this,” she teased.
Dominic let out a breath of relief followed by a hoarse chuckle. “Of course you are.” He rolled his eyes, trying and failing to keep the grin off his face. A feeble finger pointed to the ropes. “We can talk about how you enjoy the sight of me tied up later when we’re not on the brink of death.”
Adara stepped toward him, slicing cleanly through the ropes.
Dominic fell forward with a groan, and she lunged to catch him.
His weight pressed against her, causing her to step back, adjusting her stance to support him.
Quickly, she lowered him to the ground and began untying the ropes from his wrists.
He reached for the knife in his leg. Adara smacked his hand away. “Leave it or you’ll bleed out in seconds,” she scolded.
A haunting chitter echoed through the night. Those creatures prowled closer, circling them, predators going for a slow, torturous kill.
“You have to get out of here,” Adara urged him. Placing her arms under his, she carefully hoisted him upward, lightly setting him on his feet.
He leaned heavily on her, staggering.
Dominic blinked slowly, as if in a daze.
“No,” he said and shook his head. His eyes fixed on her, gleaming with distress.
“You came all this way for me,” he said roughly.
“I’m not leaving you.” His breaths came out shallow and labored between blood-crusted lips.
His fingers dug into her shoulder, clinging to her for support.
Adara’s pulse quickened, dread settling heavily in the pit of her stomach. “Dom, you idiot, you can’t fight. You have to leave.”
Dominic’s hand roughly grasped hers, their fingers laced together.
Something sparked between their palms—between their matching scars of the blood oath.
“We made a promise!” His other hand tangled in the knots of her hair, cupping the nape of her neck.
His emerald eyes scanned her, dark circles beneath them.
Fear showed brightly in them as his gaze landed upon the skin of her shoulder, shredded from the creatures that attacked after Dominic had disappeared.
“I’m not leaving you again,” he breathed, his voice wavering hysterically.
She pulled away from his gentle touches that made her heart flutter, shifting her position so she could still support his weight but avoid the way he grasped onto her like she was his lifeline.
“I’m keeping that promise to protect you!
” Adara countered. “You need to get out of here!” She didn’t want to even fathom what his death would mean for her.
He fought against her hold, raising his hands to cup her cheeks.
Gods, the way he was looking at her . . .
It would be better to avert her gaze, to avoid those emerald eyes that locked on her with such burning passion, but she couldn’t bring herself to look away.
Her pulse raced as he leaned closer, pressing his forehead against hers.
She leaned into him, into his warmth that flooded her veins like the fire that brought waves of reassurance rolling through her, knowing it was always there when nothing else remained.
To fill the cracks of her broken heart. To light up the dark recesses of her mind.
An infinite star that burned within her chest, pulsing in time with the beat of her heart that strained to abandon all reason.
“I’m not leaving you,” he repeated, voice strained, chest heaving. His thumb stroked across her cheek, and he closed his eyes, as if he couldn’t bring himself to look at her with each confession spilling from his lips. “I’d risk my life every bloody day if that’s what it took,” he breathed.
Their breath mingled in the tiny space between their lips.
Adara swallowed, her own hands making their way around his neck and into his hair.
She wanted to close the distance between them, press her lips to his to finally see what he tasted like before death could steal him from her.
But she refrained, knowing emotions were fickle, reckless things.
A jumbled mess between the adrenaline of fighting for their lives, the incessant need to feel his skin against hers, and the ever constant worry that everything she fell for was merely an illusion.
Dominic’s eyes blinked open slowly, locking onto her with such intensity her breath caught in her throat.
His hands held her cheeks, forcing her to stay focused on him, as if he wanted to make sure she saw the raw emotion in his eyes—the undiluted terror of leaving her—and hear his words loud and clear.
“There is nothing, nothing, in all the realms that could possibly be more valuable than you.”
She opened her mouth to protest, but she was at a loss for words, heart stuttering in her chest, swelling with a panoply of emotions she did not have time to sort through right now.
“Fine,” she said. Giving a curt nod, she wrapped her arm around his waist and threw his arm over her shoulder to carry him on. “We go together.”
He slumped against her, and she didn’t know if it was from fatigue and injury or relief at her words.
They didn’t make it far before Dominic collapsed in a bloodied heap.
Another sharp scream tore through the air, pained and raw, as if he had screamed for so long that he’d shredded his throat.
As if he could barely speak, let alone cry for help, but he still did.
Such a horrid sound coming from Dominic Nite made Adara’s heart jolt, her body shaking as she dropped to kneel by his side.
He lay on the ground, curled into himself, arms wrapped around his knees as he wept.
“Dominic?” Adara said, hands halting in the air next to him, uncertain what to do. Nothing was near to cause harm. In fact, those hideous creatures had retreated, disappearing into the night. She could see no threats. They were alone.