Violet

’She’s dead.’

’Don’t panic.’

’She’s dead.’

Palisa’s body lay half in the water, half on the sand. My hand was still tangled in the fur at the base of her skull, my fingers locked in a death grip I hadn’t even realized I was maintaining. I had dragged her out with me.

I stared at the corpse for a long moment, stunned.

I didn’t even notice I had dragged her out like this.

I was also stunned at the brutality of my handwork.

She was barely recognisable. Her chest and stomach was a gaping empty cavity. Her head was mangled, along with the ruined jaws twisted at impossible angles. The stumps where her forelimbs had been were still trailing out blood.

I released my grip and pulled my hand away, wiping it against the sand.

I didn’t want to touch her anymore.

The remaining wolves who had lingered at the edges of the clearing were gone. Whether they had fled during the fight or after, I didn’t know.

I didn’t even care anymore.

I pushed myself up on shaking arms. My body protested every movement. The wounds Palisa had inflicted were barely healing, and the toxin was still in my system, suppressing my abilities. Every inch of me was screaming.

But I could only think of one thing.

I crawled across the sand, past the scattered bodies of dead wolves, and past the dark stains where blood had soaked into the pink desert. My knees left trails in the sand and my hands left bloody prints with every drag forward.

Bei was where I had left her.

She hadn’t moved. Of course she hadn’t moved. She would never move again.

I reached her and gathered her body into my arms.

She was cold.

The warmth had completely left her now.

Bei had lain here alone, growing cold, with no one beside her. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

I pulled her against my chest, her head lolling against my shoulder. Her dark hair fell across my arm.

My eyes watered and the tears fell.

This was my fault.

"I’m sorry," I whispered. "I’m sorry. I’m so sorry."

The words were useless. They changed nothing. They couldn’t bring her back or undo the choice to let her follow me or erase the fact that I had been underwater discovering ancient ruins while my friend was being murdered.

I should not have gone that deep. I should have stayed with her a few more days. I should have forced my way back after being dragged through that tunnel. I should have... I should have never have let her come.

So many I shouldn’t haves!

But I apologised over and over again, because they were all I had left to give her.

I hated myself.

[ - ]

I don’t know how long I sat there.

The sun had crossed the sky and fallen, and risen again. A full day, maybe longer. I had stopped counting.

Bei’s head still rested in my lap. Her dark hair spilled across my thighs, and I had smoothed it away from her face at some point, though I couldn’t remember when. Her eyes were closed. She looked like she was sleeping.

She wasn’t sleeping.

I stared out at the pink dunes, watching the sand shift in the wind.

My body was a wreck. The wounds Palisa had left were still raw and bleeding. The toxin had faded enough that the numbness was gone, replaced by a bone-deep ache that pulsed with every heartbeat. My syzygy was returning in thin, unsteady threads, but I still couldn’t draw from the sun.

I could barely do anything with it. The connection was there, flickering at the edges of my reach, but it slipped away every time I tried to grasp it.

Zephyr was also there, but quiet.

I felt so alone.

I had nowhere to go. Nothing left to chase. The pull in my chest was quiet for the first time in months, settled and still, as if it too understood that the journey was over.

I had found what I was looking for.

And this was the cost.

My fingers rested against Bei’s shoulder. Her skin was cold beneath my touch, but I couldn’t bring myself to let go.

I was so tired.

The bond stirred.

It was faint at first, so faint I thought I was imagining it.

Then it grew stronger.

I turned my head slowly, my stiff neck protesting the movement.

A figure was moving across the dunes. Large, purposeful, closing the distance with a speed that made the sand blur beneath him.

My heart lurched so hard it hurt.

Kael?

His wolf form barrelled across the pink sand, and I saw another large wolf run to catch up with him.

I hadn’t even sensed any of them coming.

For a moment, I couldn’t breathe.

Then his wolf form dissolved, and Kael was running toward me in his human form. His face was a storm of emotions I couldn’t begin to untangle.

He slowed as he got closer. His eyes swept across the clearing, taking in everything. The bodies scattered across the sand. The dark stains where blood had soaked through. Palisa’s ruined corpse at the edge of the pool. Damon’s crumpled form further away.

Then his gaze found me.

I must have looked terrible. Covered in dried blood, my clothes shredded, wounds still open across my neck and shoulder and stomach. Sitting in the sand with a dead woman in my lap.

Something shattered across his face.

He crossed the remaining distance in three strides and dropped to his knees in front of me.

His hands found my face. His palms were warm, so warm against my skin, and his fingers trembled as they cradled my jaw. His eyes searched mine frantically, darting across my face.

"Violet." His voice cracked on my name.

The sound of it broke something inside me that I had been holding together through sheer stubbornness.

The tears came and I couldn’t stop them.

A sob tore out of my chest, ugly and raw, and I crumpled forward into him. His arms caught me instantly, pulling me against his chest, and I buried my face in the crook of his neck and wept.