Sapphire Falls (The Lost Realm #2)

45. Chapter 44

Chapter 44

Avery

A very wrapped her arms around Morgan. She could tell by the steady rise and fall of her sister’s breathing that she’d slipped into what could only be the dreamless sleep from deep magic burnout. Susan also seemed to sleep in the snow, red hair blending with the carnage on the ground around them.

Savine’s cry for her shook her from the fog she’d drifted into.

Avery stood up, walking to the jacket in a pile on the snow, and wrapped the heavy coat around herself, tucking the bowl into the oversized pocket.

“Savine!” she cried, running to the ridge as best as she could through the deep snowfall. “Savine! Savine!”

Savine’s tall, broad frame crested the ridge, fire in his blue eyes as he looked down at the scene in the ring of trees. She tugged on the bond between them and his eyes snapped onto her.

Never could she imagine that such a large, strong man could run across the snow with such speed. His feet flew across the snow, leaving hardly a print behind as he ran to Avery. She trundled through the snow, still making painstakingly slow progress to her soulmate.

Their bodies crashed together when he reached her. In one smooth motion, Savine scooped Avery into his arms, their mouths meeting in a tangle of teeth and tongue, the desperate need to be reunited pulsing between them.

Savine pulled back and looked at Avery with pain in his eyes. His voice was raw with emotion. “I failed you again. I don’t deserve to be your mate, Little Flower.”

Avery touched his hand with her broken gloves. “You make me stronger. You were with me when I defended myself. It was your essence that I used.”

Savine shook his head, and she could see the bitter self-loathing on his face, but she cut him off. “Savine, you can’t be with me at every moment, and I’m becoming stronger because you believe in me. Because Kyla and Rue make me work every day to be better.”

“Did they kill Darby?”

Avery shook her head, not even trying to stop the small smile that stretched across her lips. “No, that was all me. She’s the one who brought me here. She’d been working with the Hunters for years.”

She didn’t care that Darby had been like a mother to him; Darby had gotten in between Avery and Savine, and there was no space for someone like that in her life. To her surprise, Savine’s face turned up into a smile.

He let her body slide down his, but opened her oversized coat and wrapped the front of the coat around himself, pulling her to his chest.

“Good. If she tried to hurt you, she deserves to die.”

Avery looked at the bodies in the snow, her sister’s sleeping form included. “The portal was pulling me toward it, and I almost went through. Morgan and Susan shut it somehow. I think they’re suffering from burnout. We need to get them back to the King’s Residence.”

Savine nodded, picking up Avery and carrying her across the snow on nimble feet to where her sister slept. He whistled toward the ridge of the mountain and moments later, guards led by Garnel and Jay made their way down the steep slope.

“Do you trust Garnel with your sister?”

“Of course, but I’m still confused how she even got to me. Did you know she was in Orofine?”

“I did. She arrived shortly before you were discovered missing.”

Avery looked down at her sleeping sister and noticed the scratches around her exposed neck. Bruising and rivulets of blood dotted her neck and Susan’s. Dammit. Savine had attacked her sister and friend. She clenched her jaw as she tried to tamper her anger toward him. Avery still felt the remnants of the deep magic circulating in her blood.

“You thought she was the one who tried to take me, didn’t you?”

Savine’s voice had a growl to it, like he was frustrated with Avery. “She is working with Rylo. It seemed far too coincidental that you should disappear around the time that Morgan shows up, and knowing that I have not released Selene.”

Avery turned her back on Savine. How dare he hurt her sister? “I can’t believe you would think Morgan or Susan would hurt me!” Avery shouted. “Get the hell away from me!”

Jay and Garnel walked over to their side, giving her space as they looked between herself and Savine. She turned, walking away from Savine as she asked Garnel, “Will you please take Morgan and Susan to Hyacinth? If Kyla’s up for it, could you let her know that they’re here?”

“Of course, they’re in safe hands with me.” Garnel motioned for Jay to pick up Susan, while he lifted Morgan. “What about the eagan?”

Avery looked to where Garnel was pointing and shuddered.

The eagan was hidden in the treeline, one of the Hunters in his talons as he ripped shreds of clothing and flesh from the dead body.

She curled her lip and turned her head as entrails spilled onto the snow. “Let him eat. At least we won’t have to worry about feeding him.”

“Thank Althea we ride elk. That’s disgusting,” muttered Jay.

The two walked away, carrying Susan and Morgan’s limp bodies. Savine turned back to her, scowling. Around them, guards lifted the corpses and began carrying them up the ridge.

“You’re angry I reacted with my essence toward your sister and Susan?” Savine asked.

Avery turned from him, post holing through the snow over to Darby’s body. She bent down and yanked the axe from her skull with a sickening crack.

Nausea threatened to make her sick, but she pushed it down, walking past Savine as she began trudging through the deep powder, the bloody axe slung over her shoulder.

“ You just killed my mother’s dearest friend, a woman loyal to me, and I’m not angry at you!” Savine shouted. Two guards passed her, carrying Darby’s hanging body between them.

“ I was betrayed by that woman! I heard her very thorough confession as she tried to send me back through the portal to some impending death. So excuse me if I don’t see the two situations as the same.”

“But they are!” Savine argued.

“Hell no, they aren’t! You probably started strangling Morgan with your thorny vines before she had a chance to explain why she was in Orofine. You probably forced the answer out of her under duress. I protected myself from a woman who was trying to harm me!”

Avery continued to stomp up the steep, winter white mountain, past craggy boulders and spindly subalpine firs. There was no reason that Savine couldn’t catch her easily, not with her slow, clumsy, human footsteps through the snowfall. New flakes clung to her braid and eyelashes. She could hardly hear Savine’s deft steps behind her.

“Rylo could have been trying to take you again! I was afraid!”

Avery didn’t reply as she tried to make distance between them. It was an impossible task at this steep incline and with these conditions.

“Please, don’t ignore me, Ave!” Savine pleaded.

She let his plea linger on the wind before she answered him. “I can’t believe you’d hurt them! All I want is to be with Morgan right now, so just give me some space.”

Savine’s steps slowed. She didn’t need to look behind her to feel their bond growing taut with the change in distance and the hurt that washed over her.