Evermore Academy (Evermore Academy #3) - Audrey Grey Page 0,103
for me. My blade glances off his chest, but the creature doesn’t seem to feel the blow as it dives for my throat.
I throw up my arm to block it. Wicked looking talons curve around my arm, sinking deep. The darkling opens its hideous mouth wide, flashing rows of jagged, rotting teeth—perfect for stripping meat from bone—when an ear-splitting roar shakes the cave.
The darkling about to sample my arm disappears. Just gone.
A pulse of powerful magic slams into the cave. Cold, brutal winter magic that sinks bone-deep. Darklings fly off the cliff like trash blown in the wind. The few left aren’t moving.
They’re . . . frozen solid. As I watch, torn between hope and disbelief, the darklings shatter one by one in a violent spray of ice.
In the ensuing silence, my pulse sounds like a hammer beating the inside of my skull. My fingers are clawed around my sword hilt, my body shaking so hard that my teeth chatter.
I can’t move. Can’t do anything but stare at the moonlit entrance and the presence I feel coming through.
My mate.
He came for me. Despite the dangers, he came for me.
He surges forward, a primal fury burning in his eyes as they search for me. Dark blood covers his navy and silver Keeper’s training suit, his deep blue hair almost black in the moonlight.
Inara rushes up to him. At the same time, his eyes lock on me. I don’t even think he notices her as he pushes past.
Then I’m in his arms. Pressed against his chest. Safe. I drag my arms up and over his neck, drinking in his features. “You came.”
“Summer, as long as this shriveled black heart beats in my chest, I will always come for you. Always. ” The rumble in his voice turns to concern as he takes in my wounds. “How badly are you hurt?”
“Just a scratch,” I lie, although it feels true in the moment. Now that he’s here, the pain is gone, the fear and hopelessness replaced by joy.
We’re all going to live. Remembering my friends, I twist to look over Valerian’s shoulder. “Ruby—”
“Got her!” a familiar voice calls.
Relief floods my veins as I see Eclipsa holding a squirming Ruby up like a trophy. Asher has Mack propped against him. I can’t tell how badly she’s hurt. There’s too much darkling blood and gore covering her. But she’s standing, her lips twitching toward a smile as the dragon shifter squeezes her tighter.
We’re going to be okay.
Valerian nuzzles my neck. “Please don’t ever do that to me again.”
“I’m going to try very hard not to.”
“When I found your phone and realized what had happened—” A growl rocks his chest, and his arms tighten around me.
My gaze slides to Inara. She’s watching Valerian and me, a stricken look on her face.
Without warning, Valerian leaves the cave. And by leave I mean jumps straight off the freaking cliff. As I watch the ground rushing to meet us, my scream of surprise dies in my throat, pushed down by a mixture of fear and a strange exhilaration.
Valerian hits the ground hard, the earth shaking beneath his feet, but he holds me tight and protected against his chest. Asher, Eclipsa, and Inara land around us in a circle, Mack screaming in Asher’s arms. The impact ricochets like a bomb over the infected landscape.
Darkling bodies litter the area. Too many to count. A sick feeling wells up inside me, but I push it down.
There will be plenty of time to freak out later.
“The portal’s a few hundred yards away,” Valerian explains.
“Let me down,” I beg. “I can run.”
He frowns at me. I can tell he wants to say no, but then he carefully sets me on my feet. “If you fall behind, I’m carrying you again. Understood?”
I give him the best smile I can conjure. “If I fall behind, you better carry me.”
We break into a sprint. My thighs groan as I push my tired muscles faster, trying to keep up with them. Valerian and the others form a shield around Mack and me. Darklings streak out of the shadows, but they never make it very far.
Valerian makes sure of that.
We crest a hill and the wavering blue light of a portal comes into view.
“That might be the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen,” Mack shouts.
I couldn’t agree more.
Unfortunately the darklings love the portal just as much as we do, and they throng around the magic, shrieking and hissing, fighting to get to it.