AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I follow her out, arms out wide and herd her in the direction of the open door. Rhys and Ezra have joined us in opening the stall doors and chasing the horses out.
Lily Dancer prances in place, tossing her head and huffing with irritation while she glares at me. I can’t help going to her one last time, wrapping my arm around her strong neck, breathing in the comforting scent of her hair. I step back and meet her brown eyes one last time.
Then she turns towards Malachi and the open barn door, picking up speed as she leaves. By the time she’s passing through the massive doors, her mane and tail are flying behind her. Even in the dark, I can see her charge through the paddock filled with milling horses. At her passing, the rest follow, ready to be led as they charge through or over the simple fence.
Peace settles over me, blunting the edges of the agonizing pain.
It’s easy to ignore the growing shouts of the mob, their beating drums so similar to those I’ve heard on battlefields. They’re surrounding the stables now; they had to have spotted the fleeing horses.
I turn my back on the dark doorway, not wanting to look at the faces of people who once treated us with kindness.
Instead, I reach for Cassandra through our bond. I wish we would have had more time together. Forever wouldn’t have been enough, though. I sink into my love for her, thinking only on my favorite moments with my witch.
The smell of burning wood grows stronger; the crackle of fire racing across the front of the barn is as loud as gunfire.
“Burning is a hell of a way to go.”
I open my eyes at Malachi’s defeated words. I hadn’t realized I’d closed them.
“Not the way I’d choose to go, that’s for sure,” Ezra adds. He and Rhys join us in the center of the stable. It’ll take some time for the fire to reach us, which is almost worse. A realization freezes me and I must stiffen since my three vampire brothers all look to me.
“I need one of you to kill me, quickly.” The words rush from me. I keep going, ignoring the mixed looks of shock and horror. “For Cassandra,” I explain, desperation claiming me. I grab Malachi’s bicep, pleading, “I can’t let her feel me burn. I won’t be able to keep the wall up between us. I— I can’t do that to her.”
“Ashe—” Malachi starts but is cut off by Ambrose shouting my name.
“Get up here,” Ambrose orders and I find the energy to sink into a crouch before leaping to the loft. I stride over to him, a question on my lips. Ambrose, Kasar, and Lan are all looking in the direction of the main house. I follow their gazes.
Through the rising smoke, over the milling crowd bellowing and cheering a shouting man standing in his stirrups, in the pale light of the moon, is Cassandra. She’s on the roof, Josephine standing back, shouting at her.
I claw down our bond, reaching out for her, only to be met with an adamantine wall. Horror turns my stomach to stone, sinking me to my knees. I shake my head. She can’t. She swore she wouldn’t.
“What’s she doing?” The other males have joined us at the hay door, but I don’t know who asked the question.
“Summoning a demon, it appears.” I recognize the solemn, authority-filled voice as Ambrose.
“No,” I croak out, unable to take my eyes off of my wife. Someone grips my shoulders, and I realize they’re holding me back from the ledge of the door. I struggle and more hands grip me, keeping me from attempting to rip through the ward imprisoning us. “Cassandra!” Her name rips from my chest.
She stands tall, her sleeves ripped from her blouse; the moon’s light turns the trails of blood along her arms to silver. Josephine still shouts, pushing against an invisible barrier.
One of the men below us turns to see where we looked, then begins pointing and shouting. Half of them separate from the crowd and surge towards the house.
Cassandra’s commanding shout is as clear as if she’d spoken in my ear. Air rushes outward from her, blasting the mob and us. I throw a hand up to shield my eyes, struggling through the dust and smoke to see. There’s a new presence standing in front of her, a malevolent darkness that seems to swallow any light.
“Don’t,” I plead with my wife. “Gods, anything but this, Cassandra.”
Josephine is gone now, likely dealing with the assailants.
“You promised,” I shout at my wife, not caring that she can’t hear me. She’s blocked me completely through the bond. Did she plan this? Did she swear to me she wouldn’t summon a demon, knowing it was a lie? Or have I failed her so spectacularly that she felt pushed to this? I’d sworn these men would never touch her and now we were separated, the stables going up in flames around me.
“Not like this,” I plead, voice growing hoarse. “Anything but this.”
As if she can hear me, she looks in my direction. Her eyes find mine across the distance. My soul is buffeted by a tidal wave of love and sorrow. Then it cuts off as she looks back to the void, so fast and completely I question if I’d imagined it.
The void crashes over her body, enveloping, devouring. Screams rise around me, only for me to realize I’m the one who is making the sound. The sound of a dying beast, full of pain and suffering.
I think it’s Ambrose himself that wraps his arms around me, holding me tight against him as my world is ripped away before me.
Cassandra—or whatever she summoned—leaps from the roof and into the crowd. Whatever they see when they look at her sends them into a panic, even the demon hunters as their magic fails them.
