Endure - Sara B. Larson Page 0,88
wouldn’t be flinging fire at my back.
“Damian!” I shouted, the wind tearing my voice away as Nia plunged in between two tents and we began to race our way through the makeshift city, toward the actual city rising on the hills above what suddenly seemed to be a never-ending valley.
There were more shouts, and I glanced over my shoulder to see three men in pursuit of me now — but this time, I did recognize one of them.
I sawed back on Nia’s reins, and she ground to a sudden halt, dirt clods kicking up in the air from her hooves digging into the ground.
“Mateo! Mateo, it’s me!” I shouted out to them as they barreled down upon us, even though I’d stopped.
When he heard his name he leaned forward, and then he jerked back in his saddle, yanking on the reins of his horse as his eyes widened in shock. He lifted one hand to wave some sort of signal to the other men, and they all pulled their mounts back to a slow trot before stopping a few feet away from me.
“Alexa?” Mateo was still gaping at me. “It can’t be…. Rylan said … you …”
“Where is he?” I cut him off, urgency burning through my blood.
“Wh —”
“Where is Damian? Where is he?” My voice grew frantic.
“He’s over there — we just got here and we haven’t made it all the way to —”
I didn’t wait to hear the rest of whatever reason there was that Damian wasn’t at the castle in the distance yet. I spurred Nia into a gallop again, heading in the direction Mateo had pointed.
“Damian!” I shouted, heedless of all the people sleeping in tents as Nia charged through the camp. “DAMIAN!”
“Alexa?” When I heard his responding shout, my heart nearly stopped.
“Damian.” His name turned into a strangled sob as he burst out of a tent just ahead of us, barefoot, wearing only his pants and a loose tunic.
“Alexa!” His eyes went wide with astonishment when he saw me, and for a split second he stood frozen. But then he broke into a run, racing toward us. I pulled on Nia’s reins, but didn’t even wait for her to completely stop before throwing myself off the saddle and into his arms, just as he reached her side.
“Damian,” I cried out hoarsely as he grabbed me to him, squeezing me so tightly I could scarcely breathe. But I didn’t care. It was him. It was Damian — holding me in his arms again. Tears blinded me, rushing down my face as I clung to him.
“Alexa,” he choked out. His mouth pressed to the groove where my neck met my shoulder. He hadn’t even let my feet touch the ground yet. “You’re alive. You’re alive.” His voice cracked and he broke down into sobs, his whole body shaking violently beneath my arms.
I reached up to grasp his hair, holding his head against my body. “I promised I’d come back to you. I promised.” I couldn’t stop crying, taking great, heaving gulps of air as we clung to each other, hardly able to believe this was real.
Suddenly, he pulled back to stare into my face, finally setting me down on the hard ground. His eyes were still full of tears and his cheeks were wet. “I can’t believe it,” he whispered. “I can’t believe you’re really here. You’re alive. You’re alive.” He kept repeating it as he stroked my hair back from my face, over and over.
And then he bent down, crushing his mouth to mine, his arms encircling my body once more, pulling me in to his chest. I pressed myself in to him, winding my arms around his back and clutching his tunic as his lips moved on mine. Desperation, love, and grief melded together into a tide of emotions that consumed me — body and soul.
“I love you,” Damian said against my mouth. “I love you, I love you.” He pulled back just an inch or two, so that his forehead rested against mine, his eyes squeezed shut. “I’m going to tell you every minute of every day until we both die.”
“As much as I enjoy hearing you say it, I’m not sure everyone else would care for hearing it thousands of times for the rest of our lives,” I teased gently, smiling for the first time in weeks — maybe even months.
“I don’t care what anyone else thinks,” he responded gruffly. “You died. Rylan was sure you’d been killed. I lost you, Alexa. I’ve