“I already told you. If you think I’m leaving without you, you’re out of your damned mind,” I growl.
The gilded ceiling begins to drip like rain, the walls warping, the floor roiling, and Auren trembles with all of it, her aura so muted that it’s nearly snuffed out.
“Auren, your aura is fading fast, you have to let go!” I shout, voice rising to be heard above the groaning gold.
There’s a plea in her streaming eyes. “Leave. Please,” she says, slumping in my arms, her legs failing her.
I barely duck as a stream of gold falls just to the left of me, crashing to the ground. “Dammit, Auren, you don’t have time. Let go!”
But she either can’t anymore, or she won’t. My power is going fucking crazy, magic leaking from my feet, cracking the gold beneath me. When her aura nearly winks out, the roots around my chest claw inward like they’re trying to burrow straight through my damn heart.
Terror grapples my entire body, severs right down to my soul. She can’t die. She fucking can’t.
I won’t let her.
So I do the only thing I can think of before it’s too late and she lets the power drain her completely.
Leaning forward, I breathe her scent in, relish in the heat emanating from her skin. “Forgive me,” I whisper, because I loathe myself for what I’m about to do—for taking the choice away from her. But when it comes to her life, I can’t just sit back and let her sacrifice herself. Not for me.
My lips press against hers, even now, the supple warmth of them enough to take me to my knees. The moment she parts her mouth for me, I breathe out the rotted power within me. I let it sink in past her lips, feel it slip down her throat and root beneath her skin.
Her power wavers at the sudden intrusion, but the look of fear in her eyes nearly kills me.
“Forgive me,” I say again, because she’s scared of me. But she’s weak, so fucking weak, and I’m out of time.
With another push of power, I force her body to languish, even as my instincts scream that this is wrong. My own magic wars with me as I force her in a stasis between life and decay, as I make my power rot her from within. But I’m scared, so fucking scared that I could hurt her, that I could somehow do something wrong, push too hard.
“Forgive me,” I whisper for a third time, but I know she can no longer hear me. Please let this work, I implore silently. Please let her be okay.
When her aura is nothing but a wisp, she finally slumps, letting out a single, dusty breath as I catch her in my arms.
Without her consciousness to direct it, the wave of gold comes crashing to the floor. Taking a limp Auren in my arms, I run out of the archway just as a loud smash sounds. But even in the hall, more insipid gold is dropping from the ceiling and solidifying against the floor in uneven waves, nearly making me trip.
I dodge and duck, my spikes digging beneath my skin in a protective surge, wanting to come breaking out, but I grit my teeth and suppress it.
Gold floods the floor, splashing against the stairs, an unsuspecting servant crying out from somewhere behind me.
“Over here!”
I find Osrik waving me forward, and I skid to the right, trying to keep from jostling Auren too much as he leads me out.
The entire castle seems to groan, and I realize that more gold than just what was in the ballroom is rioting without Auren conscious to direct it.
No wonder she fucking drained herself. It’s like she brought every piece of gold in the castle to life.
“Out here,” Osrik grunts, just before he takes a sharp right, where a doorway is being propped open by Ryatt.
The moment we make it out, Ry lets the door slam shut, and not three seconds later, something hard slams against the door, splintering the wood. We all back up on instinct, watching as gold curls through the break. But much to my relief, it gives one last shake before it solidifies, its movement stiffening to a stop.
The crashing and crackling of the rest of Ranhold Castle dies down too, until bleak, unnatural silence bleeds through the air.
“Shit,” Lu says, letting out a low whistle.
Osrik looks down at Auren. “Is she okay?”
My stomach churns, a tic jumping in my jaw. “I don’t know.”
Shockwaves go through my Wrath, and then a hobbling Digby comes pushing past them to check on Auren. When he sees the state of her, he brings a pair of glaring eyes up to me. “You’d better fix her. You hear me, boy? Fix. Her.”
I blink at the fierceness in his tone. I don’t think anyone has ever dared to call me boy, even when I was one. Yet I’m too damn terrified to even be bothered. I have no idea if I did more harm than good by using my power to keep her in this paused state, but I need to get her out of here. Far away, where there is no gold to grip her.