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I’m going to die.

A ferocious roar echoes through the courtyard.

Melody hesitates.

“Fuck this, I’m out of here,” Brittany says, flitting away with her enhanced speed.

“Yeah, sorry, Mel, but I’m not pissing off the quad,” the other girl adds.

They leave me and the mage alone in the courtyard. The odds are still in her favor, the wicked sharp edges of her blade sawing through muscle.

Maybe Vaeloria is taking pity. Maybe it’s adrenaline. Either way, somehow I muster strength I didn’t think I had and rip her hand and dagger away. But there’s so much silver already tainting my blood. It slides through my veins like sludge. My head spins as I fall to the ground, and this time, my muscles are too weak to keep me up.

My face plants into the soaked earth, and I roll to the side, mud caking my face and my chest heaving as the biggest lion I’ve ever laid eyes on runs toward us, snarling. It stands at least five feet tall, corded with muscle, and has a full, healthy mane.

Melody spares me one final glare before flicking my blood off her dagger.

The lion’s golden eyes glow as they fall on me. It roars again, and this time, Melody shrinks beneath the fury encased in that sound.

“She started the fight,” Melody says. “I’m just finishing it.”

“Lying.” I gasp, shaking as a deadly cold sinks into my soul. “Bitch.” There’s too much silver.

The lion charges her, and Melody screams, scrambling back, slipping in the mud and falling on her ass. I don’t have enough strength to laugh. All four of his paws slam onto the ground over her, and he snarls again, teeth snapping inches from her face.

“Rowan, please,” she says, voice pitched high. “The Goddess wanted this.”

Rowan? The lion is Rowan?

The guttural growl it releases turns her skin white. It’s really pissing me off that the last thing I’ll see before I die is her fucking face.

The lion snaps its jaw again, even closer to her face this time. Melody holds up her hands, reaching for the beast, but it swipes its paw, claws slashing her flesh. She cries out in pain. The lion growls again before padding over to me. I make out the shape of Melody staggering to her feet, clutching her wounded arm to her chest, anger contorting her face, before the lion blocks her from my view.

“She’s already dead, Rowan. You’re wasting your time,” Melody says.

The lion—er, Rowan—whirls around and charges at her again. This time, Melody races out of the courtyard.

I chuckle, the sound sending a wave of agony through my body. Nausea crashes into me, and I gag, head heavy and muddy like the ground. Fuck, it hurts.

The lion shifts, bones cracking, snapping, and rearranging until Rowan unfurls from the beast, buck-ass naked. It’s nothing I haven’t seen before, but Goddess, this man’s body is pure perfection.

Rain slicks down his form as he crouches next to me. His hands shake as he lays them over the worst of my wounds.

I stifle a cry. His touch is like fire. Rowan’s gaze flicks to mine. His eyes are still glowing, his beast pacing within their depths. The places he touches feel as if he’s branding me. My back arches.

Rowan grunts.

I don’t understand that sound.

The pain.

What did I do to deserve everything that’s happened to me?

Why? Why do you hate me, Vaeloria?

The heaviness in my veins lightens, and while the agony of the poison still riddles my body, my head clears.

What the fuck?