He grunts and shudders. Barely holding the weight. Time slows. Bits of bark and leaves hover in midair. I have too many agonizing seconds to watch his elbows quiver, teeth clench, and genuine pain crease his brow.
This is it. He’s not going to lift it – he can’t. Those trees would equal the weight of half a damn house, and even if he pushed them off his back, he’d only be dropping them onto me – onto the trunk I’m under.
A sheen of sweat coats his brow, and his jaw clenches tight, but he’s sinking closer to me. Slowly buckling.
“Fuck,” I gasp. “Killian, move, you’re going to kill yourself.”
I press my hands into his chest as if somehow I can support his weight and the world crashing in on top of us.
The whites in his eyes vanish under the blacks. Tendrils of Darkness unfurl and stretch like thick black smoke out of his pupils and over his face. Down his neck, onto his chest, wrapping around my fingers – deathly cold.
Time snaps back into place, and the leaves and bark that were frozen in an almost beautiful pose suddenly return to chaos and debris.
“Vexy!” Seth shouts from somewhere.
He’s too far away. I can’t see anything past Killian’s massive form, the tangle of trees, and the growing Darkness. But I can feel that Seth’s nowhere near my bubble. Shadows seep from the edges of Killian’s mouth. From his ears. Like they’re always inside of him, and they’re escaping.
Something crashes loudly, and I know it’s another tree.
“Move!” I order.
He has to move. He has to get out of the way.
But he doesn’t even respond, and no Allure drags out the fear. The tree smashes into us, crushing us both with his chest flush to mine and barely any room to breathe. But I know he’s still holding them up, and the second he stops, we’re dead.
“I can’t hold it,” he gasps, every muscle violently shaking.
“Then don’t,” I whisper.
I want to tell him to roll to the side, that maybe it’ll hurt, but he’ll heal. If he rolls, just a little, he can manipulate the trees. But that would require more air than I currently have.
He rests his forehead against mine. Frozen.
And safe. Even while being crushed, I still feel safe with him. Heart pounding, can’t breathe, scared as bralls – and possibly about to die – but safe.
I am safe in the Darkness… The thought occurs to me, strung with an ice-cold power that I’ve never felt before.
Darkness, keep me safe, I ask, and his shadows obey.
They slam backwards, hitting the four trees that are piled on top of us, and in one sharp swirl of ash and smoke and all things dark, they’re gone.
Just. Gone.
Like the Darkness opened up and took them.
All of them – even the ones that were seeping from Killian’s eyes.
Seth runs over, suddenly able to get to us. Maybe he was thrown so far away that he’s just getting back, or the massive trees were blocking his path. I don’t know, and I only care that he’s here now.
He throws himself down next to us, landing on his hands and knees, puffing and panting just as badly as we are.
Killian inhales fully and straightens.
My back arches, and my lungs sigh with relief. I’m partway through rolling over, feeling bruised and shaken, when Killian pulls me into his arms, pressing me to his chest like he needs a moment longer to be sure we’re all alive.
To be sure I’m alive.
I hug him back, even though it means the whole breathing thing is once again constricted. Seth rests his head on my spine, at the nape of my neck. Each of his deep inhales sends a new shiver down my spine.
“I couldn’t even see where you were,” he whispers.
“I’m sorry,” I offer.
“Never, Vexy. Never be sorry.”
“Agreed,” Killian rumbles, standing and taking me with him.
He scoops an arm under my legs, cradling me to his chest. Carrying me toward the cottage.
“I can walk,” I start to protest because protesting my need to apologize is useless.
“No,” Killian growls.
“What hurts, Vexy?” Seth asks, his voice still shaken as he bounds down the boulders beside us.
I pause to check before answering, “Nothing, I’m fine.”
“She’s fine,” Killian says, but the way his fingers are pressing into me, one hand under my shoulders and the other hooked under my knees, I get the impression he doesn’t feel fine.
“I’m fine,” I repeat, searching Killian’s eyes.
The shadows seeping from his body have vanished, but it’s like I can still feel them there as we beeline towards the cottage, or maybe that’s just his ready-to-murder-someone vibe. Then we’re inside, Seth barely closing the door behind us before Pax slams the thing open again.
“What,” Pax begins.
“Happened?” Thane finishes.
Killian’s arms relax, letting my feet fall to the ground before handing me off to Seth. I’m wrapped up in Seth’s arms and his bitter sweet orange-cherry scent. Not the coppery tang of mischief. Just worried, running his hands over my body, heart beating way too hard, Seth.
“She used my Shadows,” Killian says, with a genuine pang of fear in his voice.
Pax’s jaw tenses. His skin ripples part wolf, then man, wolf, then man. Like they’ve regressed to their original struggle for dominance. His hand balls into a fist, but he doesn’t – or can’t – move.
“She used my Chaos first. It was my fault.”
“She can’t use the Shadows,” Thane growls, and none of us move or talk until Pax is back.
“She can’t use the Shadows,” Pax repeats.
No one is arguing. Actually, for an argument, there’s not a lot of talking happening at all. Killian storms past Pax, putting his fist through the wall on the way out. Pax takes careful steps closer, obviously struggling with all the reactions the sigil isn’t letting him have.
There’s no words, but as Pax approaches, Seth presses a kiss into my hair, then unwraps his arms from around me and retreats.
Leaving me with my mate. I want desperately to throw my
