Page 155 of Sands of Atonement

I was about to lose my mind when I felt Casimir’s hand on my back.

This was so fucking bad.

What did Targon have to do with Eshe and Norrah?

“Come, I’ll show you where she is, but we have to move quickly.”

I let go of the tunic, and we followed Lazerak through the hallways, hoods pulled forward. Nodding at the occasional Atrovian we passed as my heart pounded against my chest.

She had been here all along.

We went to the lowest level of the Atrove, where the prisoners were kept. I never put Eshe in these chambers because she was never a prisoner to me. Here she was, in the most terrible room. There were no small windows or open gates to see the light. It was pure darkness, unless there was a candle lit. It was cold down here, something no one who lives in desert countries was used to. It was torture.

Isolated.

A tomb where we temporarily placed prisoners. It was just a matter of when we were going to kill them after we got the information we wanted.

We arrived at one of the chambers, and by the looks of it, she had no guard. We approached the door, and Lazerak made a quick motion to unlock it with his keys.

My throat tightened at the sight of Eshe lying on the floor.

I rushed to her and dropped to my knees. I pulled her limp head onto my lap, “Eshe, my love.” Brushing her hair off her face, I placed the strand behind her ear. “Eshe.”

She wasn’t waking.

I quickly placed my fingers around her throat to feel her pulse.

And I did.

My hands pressed around her shoulders and shook her. “Eshe.”

For a moment, I was taken back to when I saw her nearly dying in front of me in the flooded baths. And to the moment when I found her in destruction.

She was here.

I knew it in my heart—she had to be here. Just moments before the explosion, I heard her behind the column, listening to Casimir and me. She wasn’t as quiet as she liked to think she was.

But I wished I could hear her snarky comments or her carefree laugh. I had to hear her voice one more time. I had to.

My hands gripped the sharp-edged pieces of marble, leaving streaks of blood against the white pieces. I had been digging through the rubble for hours, for her, and my skin was a bloody mess. My mind couldn’t stop screaming at me to find her.

To find my need.

I was losing my mind—my control. Anyone who could see me would only see an insuppressible animal.

The early morning light was finally showing the wake of destruction. I could only imagine that she wasn’t breathing, that she was suffocated underneath. We had found Yonam. His head had been smashed against one of the walls. He most likely had not even known the feeling of death until the afterlife. My heart squeezed at the sight of him.

He was always my favorite of the two brothers.

He was real. He was a light to this world.

I was at the center of the ruins when I finally saw a white fabric. Then I saw a hand between two fallen stones. My heart shattered, and my breath grew frantic.

Without a second to spare, I grabbed the heavy piece of marble off her arm.

Her face caused my heart to pummel down into my stomach.

Eshe.