Total pages in book: 194
Estimated words: 187754 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 939(@200wpm)___ 751(@250wpm)___ 626(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 187754 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 939(@200wpm)___ 751(@250wpm)___ 626(@300wpm)
“You haven’t earned that.”
“Give us the chance to.”
“You haven’t earned that either.”
He perks a blond brow. “Are we negotiating or not, songbird?” When I hold my stubborn silence, Thorin gives in with a sigh. “Aurelia…please, baby. The ice.”
“So leave. Save yourself.”
“Not without you.”
I bark a dry laugh and blink away the exhaustion creeping in. “So much for ‘run, and we’ll let you die,’” I mock with a slur. “You hurt me, Thorin. And don’t tell me I liked it or that you’re sorry, or I’ll let this lake take me before I let you have any part of me.”
Thorin falls to his knees, and I don’t expect that.
Behind him, I can see that Khalil and Seth more clearly now. They’ve managed to gain a few feet. They’re edging to opposite sides—away from the splintering ice so that they can be in position to grab us both.
“Then let it have me instead,” Thorin says quietly so Seth and Khalil don’t overhear.
My gaze snaps back to him. “What?”
“You said we deserved death. Promise me you’ll take care of them, and I’ll make it right. I’ll fall through the ice and you’ll never see me again.”
“Thorin, that is…that is not what I meant.”
He holds up his hands in supplication. “I don’t know what else to do, songbird. Tell me how to make it right, and I will.”
“You can’t.”
His blue eyes shutter. “Then take two steps to the right, and let me go.”
“No.”
It’s then I realize my weight is the only thing keeping him from going under. I hadn’t even noticed the crack spreading around us, creating our own little island while the water laps the surface. It makes sense now why Khalil and Seth separated. They’re hoping to grab us both at the same time. But if one of them is too slow…
I eye Khalil as he reaches me and then Seth as he reaches Thorin.
Khalil is faster. They must have known that.
It means Khalil and Seth chose me over their own brother, and Thorin chose me over himself.
When my blurry gaze returns to Thorin, my tormented heart punches against my chest, and the mob of unspoken words that I’ve been too cowardly, stubborn, and prideful to speak burst free.
“I—”
I’m too late.
My side of the frozen island gives, and I fall through the ice so fast I don’t make a sound.
The freezing temperature of the lake immediately sinks into my bones and cuts off my shout. The drugs in my system have finally kicked in, relaxing my muscles so that I can’t fight my way back to them. It’s as if the mountain had given me one last chance to accept the eden it had offered me before deciding to devour me instead.
While the water pulls me down, and the darkness awaits me at the bottom, my eyes remain locked on the surface and the last of the sun’s rays, illuminating the hole I fell through. I fight past the heaviness to keep them open, and when the light suddenly blinks out, I assume that I’ve lost.
Allowing myself one last gift before I’m lost forever, I picture their faces one last time—Thorin, Khalil, and Seth. I imagine them surrounding me like they always seem to until all I feel is them. The cold becomes a distant memory while the drugs keep me docile. It keeps me from fighting the water pulling me down.
Keeping the image of my three mountain men firmly in mind, my eyes finally start to close when the sunlight at the surface suddenly returns, and I see him.
He cuts through the current-less water like it’s…well, water.
Our gazes find each other through the endless dark, and he swims faster. I can’t swim, but somehow, I use the last of my strength to reach out a hand to him. I’m losing my fight with consciousness almost as fast as I’m losing the air in my lungs, but I hold on.
I cling to life until I feel our fingers graze, and then I keep holding on when Thorin links them together. He uses that tenuous connection to pull me closer and locks his arms around me before pushing us both back toward the surface.
Who could love a monster?
As it turns out, I can.
I can love, crave, and forgive three of them because they’re my monsters.
I’m claiming them.
It’s what I was going to say before I fell through the lake, and now it looks like I’ll get my chance after all.
“Fuck, he got her!” Khalil shouts the moment Thorin and I break through the surface.
Khalil pulls me out of the lake while Seth helps Thorin, and then the two of them hover while Thorin catches his breath, and I expel the water from my lungs.
It’s not a pretty sight.
The moment I’m done, Thorin uses the last of his energy to pull me on top of him and scans my face for proof that I’m really alive before dropping his head back with a heavy sigh and staring at the sky.