Page 102 of Peacemaker

Chapter Thirty-Four

The Werebull

I’d let her go.

I’d let her die.

Oh, fuck, I’d let them kill her.

I shifted and ran, intending to swim to the island and stand with her, to make sure she didn’t die alone. I would die with her.

She’d told me to stay alive, but there was no alivewithout her.

But Himself, the fucking king, had taken her from me. Rhys had carried her to her death. Clayton had slid his bitch of a sword into its sheath, bowed his head, and crawled back into the deep black hole of his broken mind.

Leo had tried to save her, though. He’d jumped into the air and grabbed her, tried to steal her from Himself the way that old bastard had stolen her from me, and Himself had kicked Leo in the head.

The half-giant was still unconscious. He’d wake up, eventually. Maybe.

I’d left Clayton there to watch over him, left the rifters and vampires to their fight, and I ran.

Before I was even out of the city, rifters began passing me. The earth shook as they flew by me, their minds on one thing.

Reaching the woman.

My woman.

I roared. Hear me, Trin. I’m here. I haven’t left you. I haven’t given you up.

She wouldn’t hear me, but she’d feel me.

Amias raced by me, and then, in what seemed like slow motion, he turned to look at me, and I saw Shane’s corpse in his arms.

Then he disappeared.

If anyone could reach her, the vampire master could. He was faster than the rifters. Even carrying a dead man.

I couldn’t grieve for Shane. Not yet. I was too full of terror for Trin. She shouldn’t have to stand on that island alone and wait for rifters to eat her.

You knew from the beginning…

Yeah.

I’d known Trin was meant to save us against some fuzzy future catastrophe. But not like this.

Not like this.

And not now that she was so very fucking loved.

She’d healed something in each of us. She’d completed us. She’d been the one fucking thing we’d all needed, and now she was being taken from us.

The rifters left me in the dust. I was fast, but they were vampires—mutated vampires but vampires nonetheless—and nothing was faster than a vampire.

Except the dragon. The dragon was faster.

Amias’s vampires stayed behind. Dawn was coming, and they’d need to sleep. The sun wouldn’t get to the rifters, though. The sun wouldn’t burn them. The dragon would.

Fucking Rhys.

My horn, the horn Trin had saved, vibrated and throbbed. It honed in on the island like an antenna, long before I reached it. The sounds carried across the water, poured in through my silver horn, and slammed into my brain.

My woman. My love.

I couldn’t save her.

I ran.