Total pages in book: 116
Estimated words: 114281 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 571(@200wpm)___ 457(@250wpm)___ 381(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 114281 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 571(@200wpm)___ 457(@250wpm)___ 381(@300wpm)
I don’t care if it costs me my life. I have to save his.
Even as the men jump in right after me, I keep swimming, ignoring their warnings and shouts. I swim and swim until I reach the shore and run up to the beach. My clothes are soaked, and my body is shaking from the cold, but I ignore it and push through. I’m running on pure adrenaline now as my legs brush past thorny branches in the woods and twig scrape along my skin, leaving bloody gashes.
None of it matters.
Not if I can’t get to him in time.
The men behind me scream, and a knife zooms past my head, but I pay no attention as I run straight to the village. I can already see the huts up ahead, along with the crowd gathered near the center.
I can see the stump of wood in the middle my head was planted on when they tried to take my life … but now Soren’s head rests on top.
My eyes widen as the man with the ax steps forward.
I run as fast as I can into the crowd, shoving them aside with everything I have.
And as the ax is lifted into the sky, I run up to Soren and cover his body with mine.
“No!” I hold up my hand to meet the ax.
The man swinging it stops midair, and the crowd bursts out into shocked gasps.
“April?” Soren mutters, glancing up at me.
The guards that escorted me onto the boat come running into the crowd, but a cane is tapped against the ground. The guards stop in their tracks and glance at the Elder, who steps forward. “What is the meaning of this?”
The guards step aside for her while speaking some language I don’t understand. She narrows her eyes at them and then focuses on me.
“Answer me,” she says.
With pride on my face, I look at her and say out loud, “I’m not leaving. You want to kill him? Then kill me too.”
Soren
“No!” I bark, but she places a finger against my lips to shut me up.
What is she doing here? She’s supposed to be on her way back to freedom again.
That was the agreement the Elder and I made the second I said I wouldn’t let them kill her. The price I paid for her to be let go was my own death, and I accept that.
But I cannot let her throw herself into death as well.
Elder Saga’s brows furrow as she looks at me, then her.
“You would sacrifice your life even if neither of you make it?”
April’s eyes tear up. “Yes.”
I’m silenced by the beauty of the tears streaming down her face.
The Elder slams her cane into the ground again. “He is a warrior, one who deals in pain and death. You know this … yet you still choose him over your own freedom?”
April immediately nods.
No hesitation.
Complete and clear agreement.
And I don’t understand.
Why would she risk her life for me like this when there is nothing for her to gain?
“Why?” the Elder asks.
The silence around us is deafening when April speaks. “Because I love him.”
Love.
She loves me.
The punisher. The one who hurts, who slices, who cuts, who kills.
The one who took her freedom, who took her virginity.
She loves me?
I look up into her eyes, the affection and heartbreak in them clear as day. Why did I not see it before?
All this time, I thought she came to find me out of pure guilt.
But now I realize that the only thing driving her was love.
The same kind of emotional turmoil I’ve been feeling in my bones all this time but could never place. The kind of love that will make you sacrifice your life for someone else.
It took me a while … but now I finally see her for who she really is.
Too late.
Because the ax is still above both our heads.
“You love him?” The Elder raises her hand at the man with the ax. He puts the ax down in response. “Is that the truth or is it only because of guilt?”
April holds her head high. “I love him. I love every part of him. I gave myself to him out of my own free will. And I still choose him.”
Something about her words spurs me on, pushing me to get up from the stump even though I’m still tied up. April gets up with me, clutching me close.
The Elder raises a brow at me, urging me to stop.
But now that I know how April truly feels about me, I can’t stop.
I have to find a way.
So I tear off the ropes with only the strength inside my own body, ripping them to shreds as I roar out loud. And I shield her body with mine as I ogle the guards, ready to pounce them if I have to. I will die trying to protect her from this fate.