43

A R Y A

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We chose the main entrance. We moved quietly and swiftly through the dark, damp tunnels.

I had studied the maps days before our first break-in and knew where Echinda's rooms were. But the demons came unexpectedly.

"Arya! Go!” Chatima called to me when they stopped us.

My gaze lingered briefly on Georgie, who fought bravely against the demons and fired arrow after arrow. I looked at Chatima again. He understood me without a word.

He nodded. “I'll take care of her.”

With that silent promise, I made my way through the ferocious Hell Warriors, knocking them off one at a time, then ran through the corridors as fast as I could. Turned in exactly the right places I had marked out and finally stood in front of the heavy, thick, iron-hinged door.

I didn't need a bow to kill Echinda. I needed the daggers to carve the rune into her skin while reciting the incantation. Then all her soul ties would dissolve and she would no longer control anyone. Only then was I allowed to ram an arrow into her black, bestial heart.

I opened the door.

Though I'd never really known how to picture her, I pictured her differently. Neither prettier nor uglier. Just different”.

Her long, strong, reptilian tail shimmered in a rich green and stood in stark contrast to her pale skin and black hair. But it wasn't the tail, nor the scaly skin, that threw me off. It was her eyes. Large, almond-shaped eyes, the pupils of which were drawn into long, wide slits. And they hardly blinked once while I was looking at them.

"Arya, what a surprise." Her gaze slid to my weapons. "A rather unpleasant surprise, to be specific."

I tightened the grips on the two daggers in my hands. "Based on reciprocity."

She looked at me coolly. Then it squirmed to one side, revealing the great altar in the center of the cave room. "Xenos, take care of this problem for me."

I gasped as I recognized the tall, familiar figure on the flagstone. Slowly and in halting movements he sat up and when he turned his head to me and fixed me, I froze. Deep black eyes looked at me. No realization glimmered in his once beautiful blue eyes. No emotion or even warmth. Instead, they were exactly how I felt. “Empty”.

"What have you done to him?" I whispered, unable to take my eyes off him.

Echinda watched as Xenos slid off the altar and got to his feet. "You had no idea what?" Now she was looking at me. "And I always thought Mates were as close as any two other souls."

"What didn't I know about?" A stupid stupid question, but I had to ask it nonetheless. Needed to know if my suspicions were confirmed. I broke out in a sweat and the dagger handles became slippery.

Echinda laughed softly. “Oh dearest Arya, none of that matters now. Aren't you, big boy?” She stroked Xeno's bare arm gently.

"Don't touch him!" I yelled, preparing to lunge at her when she raised a hand and coldly commanded:

"Kill her."

As if Xenos had just been waiting for one of her orders, he marched towards me. A hard face, gloomy eyes and clenched fists.

I shook my head, couldn't believe what I was seeing. "That's ridiculous! You would never harm me, even under her influence!"

But he was getting closer and closer at a steady pace, ignoring my objections.

"Come on Xenos, you know who I am." I backed away slowly, lowering my daggers. "It's me, Arya."

I didn't see the rapid attack coming. One moment he was standing several feet away from me, the next he was in front of me, grabbing my neck and hauling me off the floor.

I widened my eyes and realized he really wasn't “he”. I wouldn't be able to get through to him. He was gone, none of my xenos was here anymore. She had taken him.

She had taken him from “me”.

Before he could cut off enough air that I wouldn't have the strength to fight him, I holstered my daggers and then hit his outstretched arm with my elbow.

I couldn't fool myself; hurting him with my knives would destroy me. So I freed myself from his grip with skillful, nimble grips after my hit with my elbow had failed and circled him with my supernatural speed.

I quickly dodged his grasping hands, but was too slow to duck under his darting fist, and my head snapped sideways as it caught me square in the face. Blood spattered the floor and my vision shattered.

I'd fought Xenos before and he'd won by a hair's breadth. But back then he didn't want to see me dead, he didn't have that heartless look back then.

I stumbled back past the altar, already feeling the cool breeze brush me as I came perilously close to the mouth of the cave and the abyss. I raised my hand. "Xenos, please. That is not you!"

But his eyes stayed black.

'Enough of the games. Kill her once and for all.” Echinda commanded and I saw a switch click inside him.

I dodged the first few fists, then snapped my jaw at him myself, trying to throw him off balance at the same time, causing him to fall, but the power in his next punch caught me unexpectedly. More power than a werewolf could ever have. A punch that hit me right in the stomach.” BAM”. And I flew backwards, over the edge, down into the abyss.

"AHHH!" I screamed as my dress flapped in the air and pure adrenaline rushed through my body. But then something pulled me back.

A strong, strong hand that grabbed my arm and saved me from the fatal fall.

"“Xenos”." I could have cried if my nerves weren't at the end of their rope. I gripped his hand tightly, wrapped my second hand around his arm as well and clawed tightly. I looked up at him. "Please pull me up."

I heard his breath as he crouched against the cliff and looked down at me. Fast and furious, his shirtless torso glistening with sweat and his forehead as well. His brows were drawn together in a spasm, but his eyes were still the same. Black.

"Please! Xenos, you know who I am.” I begged him, my voice shaking, still dangling in the air and trying to hold on to him as best I could. But my arms started to burn. “It's me, Arya. Arya, your mate, remember?”

Beads of blood adorned his bare arms, and red welts that appeared to have been drawn beneath the surface of his skin ran down his entire forearm. his wolf. He tried to escape.

I gasped. How much pain do you think he must be in? I looked into his eyes. If I could get through to his wolf, I could bring him back. "Do you remember the first time we met? Our first kiss? You told me I smelled like sweet flowers and fresh spring – it just slipped your mind,” I said with a shaky laugh. His eyes flickered. "Then you tried to cover it up and told me you didn't have the best sense of smell in the pack anyway, and I probably didn't smell that good after all." My hands were sweating and my tendons were burning like hell. "And how do I really smell, huh? After flowers? After spring? Fresh? Sweet? Tell me."

His pupils dilated slightly and a bluish tinge entered his eyes. Fangs that went out and a low growl.

“Yes!”

"Xenos, I know you can hear me," I urged, both my arms shaking terribly. I couldn't stand it much longer. "“Please, please pull me up”."

"Kill her, goodness gracious!"

His grip loosened a bit and I sank deeper into the abyss.

"NOOO!" My scream thundered through the morning hours and one of my hands slipped off your arm. I clung on desperately with my other, trying to ignore the violent tremors in my tendons and clinging to him even tighter.

Eyes that flickered again, like that time at the ball. “Bright...dark...bright...dark.”

"Xenos, “feyen! Ehsa teru eyan”.” Tears stung my eyes and just rolled down my cheeks as I whispered, “You promised you wouldn't let me fall.”

“Light...dark...light...dark...”

"You promised” “." My hand dropped dangerously low. "You promised me”."

Painfully long dragging seconds passed until suddenly a jolt went through his body. Wolf eyes staring at me in horror. he gasped. "“Arya”."

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