Page 99 of Empire of Dark

“Get up. Follow me.”

I hacked a cough. “I’m right behind you. I’m coming.” I wasn’t.

Venetia lifted away from me and I could hear Damen’s footsteps thud and then disappear into the black haze of smoke.

I closed my eyes, my muscles losing the last of their strength.

He would get Venetia out—that was the most important thing. Venetia safe.

The black smoke seeped fully into my head, clouding my mind. Each wisp of thought slipping away before it could be fully formed.

Then nothing.

Nothing for a short time, or a long time, I wasn’t sure.

Nothing until my body was floating in the air. Heat on my face.

The lava.

This was going to be interesting. At least I would have the lava-meets-my-skin question answered.

Except, no.

This wasn’t an inferno-type of heat. This was a gentle caress of heat.

I tried to flick my eyelids open, and to my surprise, they did as commanded.

Sun.

Sun shining directly into my eyes.

A dark shadow bobbing in and out in front of the sun.

An angel carrying me.

Sudden wind hit my eyes so hard I squinted them closed.

The wind ceased and I opened my eyes again. The sun was gone and I could see the angel.

Not an angel—Damen. Damen carrying me. Still cradling me, he set me down in his lap as he sat in a helicopter with its blades whirling in a continuous thunder above us.

A door closed and, with a jerk of a movement, the helicopter lifted upward, moving. Moving fast, the buildings and smoke flying by through the windows of the aircraft.

His right arm stayed under my back while his left hand moved from under my knees and he set his hand onmy forehead, his thumb moving up and down between my eyebrows.

I could feel it and couldn’t feel it—like my skin had gone numb, but I still knew what he was doing by sight alone—a phantom touch.

We landed and he picked me up, carrying me out of the helicopter and up into a waiting plane.

The door closed behind him as he lay me down on a long couch on the private jet we’d taken to the island.

The plane started to taxi and he left me, disappearing from view.

I wanted to lift my head to see where he went but still couldn’t move a muscle. Just watch with my eyes open, while the rest of me was frozen. Realizing it, a familiar terror ripped into my chest.

A terror of a time when all I could do was see, look, and nothing else. Trapped in a body that wouldn’t move—a torture like no other.

Panic seized me.