“How bad?” Cadmar asked.
I bit the inside of my cheek. I didn’t want to hear those next words, but there was no escaping them. “She is... dying,” Donovan said, voice emotionless and robotic.
I glanced at his fists. They curled into tight balls, shaking with absolute and impenetrable rage. He abruptly cocked his head and searched for the one who had done this to her. That pathetic motherfucker. I would end him tonight.
I was no longer human. My DNA was so much more complex now. During heightened states of anxiety, I became an unnatural killer. It was what this landscape trained us to be. I dove down the hill, rushing toward the impenetrable flames that had now taken over the whole area Donovan had provided so much energy to maintain.
“Mag,” Cadmar called out. “Wait. There’s no way through the flames. You will die in there.”
But there was no reasoning with me anymore. He’d invaded our world.
But most of all, he wouldn’t stop harming her. I wasn’t the type of man to give himself to one woman. I just wasn’t. Before we lost contact, I could barely hold down a small security detail. I was erratic. I handled things the way I felt they should be handled. But when I saw her come back, it was like I had been playing a part in a play. Humility. Was that the right word? What did it matter when I couldn’t go back to living without her anymore?
I could feel my veins bulge with the effects of hormone secretion. With each step, I seemed to black out. Red. Pure fucking red.
I ran through the greenhouse, searching for Adeline. The underlying structure of the building was too weak. It was going to cave in at any second. “Fuck me,” I whispered and ran toward the back where more of the fire had damaged a section of the wall. Sprawled out on the soil, Adeline clung to life. A black pool had already begun to spread.
“My...” she coughed, teeth stained with blood.
I cradled her body and searched for the injury. It was a knife wound, and it was deep. She was losing blood. “Addie, we must get you out of here. Donovan will be able to help you.”
She weakly groaned and tried to move her arm. “My... fuck.” A tired breath escaped her lips. She was closer to death than I thought, and her eyes seemed to prove it. They wobbled before shutting. Her face was losing color. “My pockets... Encheon Root...”
Of course. Encheon root. Donovan’s pride and joy, his first discovery here. Another one of the gifts from the zone, one of many that could help humanity thrive on earth had they let us back.
Leaning forward, I grabbed her bag and dug through, easily finding the tight bundle of leafy roots. Quickly, I broke it up and spread it on her wound as the secretion of the leaves turned to a sticky liquid paste. It solidified and started to work its magic, but it was slower acting than I expected.
“Open,” I said. She ate slowly. Too slowly. I kept glancing around for some area of safety. There was nothing. Heat radiated around us. I searched more, squinting to see Zane’s body, and my knife left behind. Adeline had gutted him. He was dead.
I pocketed the blade. I should have celebrated his passing, but I couldn’t when there was a chance he could take Adeline with him.
I lifted my head and roared for my counterparts. I threw my body around Adeline, feeling the hot lick of fire against my back. I didn’t want to admit defeat. I needed to get her to safety.
“The detonation device,” she whispered. “My bag…”
“What?” I asked, confused.
The smoke spread around us. It was getting harder to breathe. Her wound wasn’t closing, and she had already lost a lot of blood. “Are we...”
“Don’t. Don’t fucking say it,” I growled.
“Going to die?”
A black cloud surrounded us. Adeline’s eyes closed, and her breath slowly ceased. Everything turned silent. The flames. The destruction. All of it came down to this moment. Even with the use of the encheon root, I couldn’t come to her rescue. Once again, I had failed everyone.
We lost. We fucking lost.
I thought I could go on without her. If things went south, I was supposed to be the strong one. I was so wrong.
I held my breath, ready to destroy the world she had been taken from. ”Adeline, I won’t leave you,” I said, choking down as many of my tears as I could.
Something inside me was changing. As tears slid down my face, my skin turned cold against the heat. Was this what death felt like? I accepted my fate, but I still shielded Adeline’s body as the fire finally washed over me like a bright new sun.
I held her close, my heart against hers. The building collapsed around me. The roof vent broke across my back. And then it happened.
The explosion took me by surprise. It should have fucking killed me. Debris was everywhere, but I was completely numb. A force field formed around my body, bright and luminescent blue. Power. Healing. Somehow, I could still hear. I could still speak. I was still fucking alive, and I had shielded her from m
ore harm to her body.