Hunter's Fall Read Free

his men.
    “I shall deal with your husband,” William said, his voice quiet and dignified. His eyes gleamed though, with something she did not like, not one bit. He would deal with her husband? Lower himself to free him? Instead of ordering his men . . . ?
    Her ears pricked at those words. Her instincts screamed.
    Rough rope bit into her wrists but she barely even noticed as she watched William walk over the uneven ground to where his men were cutting Elias free.
    Elias shrugged away from them and started toward Nessa. She shook her head at him and she could see the argument in his eyes. Run , she said into his mind. Now.
    She heard the argument in his head. Felt his refusal.
    And then there was nothing but icy, sharp pain. She felt the brutal echo of it in her own heart.
    They were soul mates—meant for each other even before birth. It would have been better if that blade had killed her as well as Elias.
    “No!” she screamed out. She shoved at the sheriff’s man, pushing away from him as though he was naught more than a child.
    “Grab her—cover her eyes,” one of the men bellowed.
    All around her people shouted—although some screamed in horror as they realized what one of William’s men had done.
    She barely even heard them. She was aware of nothing.
    Nothing but the screams . . . and the blood.
    It was Elias’s blood, dripping from the dagger of a treacherous snake.
    Without even looking at her wrists, she gave in to the rage and used her magic to set fire to the ropes, and they fell to the ground still flaming. Nessa didn’t remember closing the distance between her and Elias, just catching him as he sagged to the ground.
    William stood behind him, his thin mouth curved up in a smile. In his hand, he held a jeweled dagger and the blade dripped with dark, dark red blood.
    “You will be mine now, Agnes.”
    “Not even in hell,” she whispered hotly, lifting her eyes from Elias’s face for one second. “And hell awaits you.”
    William fell back a step as he looked at her. Behind her, she heard people moving up. Power exploded through her and then heat surrounded her. Fire now wrapped a deadly ring around the three of them, Elias, William and Agnes. He paled, his eyes widening as the fire seemed to reach out and grab him.
    “Help me!”
    Elias laughed, the sound choked and full of pain. “Listen to him scream for help, love. You came and answered their cries. And this is what they have done.”
    Nessa looked down at Elias, pressing her fingers to his lips. “Hush,” she whispered, forcing the words past the tears that were threatening to choke her.
    Then she looked back at William. “Filthy swine—there is no help for you. Murderer, filthy, evil murderer. Rot in hell.”
    William shrieked, the stench of his burning flesh heavy in the air. All around people screamed, and then they scattered. Their fear was ripe—she should have been choking on it, but she didn’t care.
    Nothing mattered.
    Nothing but the sight of Elias lying so still in her arms, his face growing more and more pale as his blood flowed so hotly from his body.
    She reached under Elias, pressing her hand to the wound. It was too close to his heart, though. “Elias . . . God, please,” she sobbed, hugging him to her. His breath rattled in and out of his chest. “Do not leave me!”
    “Hush.”
    “Do not tell me to hush, you fool!” she shrieked. Magic sparked out of her and she tried to focus it. Witches could heal. Damn it, she could heal him. She had not yet learned that magic, but she had to try.
    She couldn’t focus it, though, not to save her life.
    Or his, it seemed. More and more blood drained from him as she tried to use her wild magic to heal that nasty, jagged wound. “You cannot leave me, Elias,” she whispered. “You cannot leave me. You are my life.”
    He reached up, touching his hand to her face. Nessa gave up trying to hold the jagged edges of the wound together and caught his hand, pressing it to her cheek.