Chapter 19

Aurelia POV

The icy mud ate at my skin, but it was the burning tear inside my chest that paralyzed me.

Every yard I dragged myself forward, away from the collapsing drainage pipe and the sealed dome, my blood screamed in agony. Mate separation sickness hit like a sudden, violent fever. My vision blurred into jagged silver spots, my stomach heaved onto the wet leaves, and my muscles convulsed as the magical thread binding my soul to Draven stretched beyond its limit. It was a physical tearing of my veins—my body revolting against leaving him behind in the dark.

I collapsed against a granite boulder, dragging air into my burning lungs. High up the ridge behind me, the collapsed drainage tunnel was buried under tons of shattered rock and iron girders.

Looking back at the cave-in, a dark, desperate prayer took root in my mind. I hoped Draven was dead beneath that mountain. I hoped the falling stone had crushed him instantly, ending his suffocating obsessio