Marrying a Warhound (Cassian) novel Chapter 35 read online

ATASHA’S POV

“Ca- “I started coughing as his hand tightened around my throat.

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His glowing red eyes locked on mine. I clawed at his wrist, choking on the smoke and panic. This wasn’t him. Not the man who told me to play weak to survive. But just as I thought he’d crush the last breath from my lungs, something changed.

His other hand jerked up, grabbing his own wrist.

His fingers trembled. His jaw clenched as though grinding against invisible pressure. It was like he was fighting himself. Straining to pull back. Struggling against some force inside him. His grip loosened slightly, but his eyes remained red, burning and unstable.

Then the smoke swallowed us whole.

He coughed then fully released me. I collapsed hard onto the cave floor, gasping, hacking through the acrid air. My vision blurred, lungs on fire. I blinked fast, trying to clear my sight. A few feet away, Cassian dropped to his knees. Then he looked at me, and that was when Irealized, his eyes were no longer red. I didn’t know what happened, but I wassure, this was not the same Cassian who had tried to kill me seconds ago. “Leave…” he said.

“What–What are you-

“Leave me… or you will die.”

I frowned. But before I could say a word, he crumpled.

He didn’t move.

“No,” I rasped, crawling toward him. “Cassian-‘

But he was out cold. His body lay limp, face pale beneath the grime and soot, his chest rising faintly but uneven. Behind me, the flames crackled louder. The air shimmered with heat. And ahead, the poison–filled tunnel waited, just as lethal as the fire.

There was no time to think.

I tore a strip from the hem of my shirt with trembling hands, rolled it tight, and pressed it over his nose and mouth. It wasn’t much, but it might help block the worst of the toxins. Then I looked at him again, really looked.

I could leave him. Leave him here to die. Let the fire or the poison finish what I couldn’t.

11:10 Wed, Sep 10

Chapter 35

But I didn’t.

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I didn’t even blink as I slid his arm over my shoulders. His weight dropped onto me like stone, nearly toppling us both. I staggered, feet slipping on the ash, coated floor. But I planted my heel down and forced myself up.

Every firewood run. Every trip up that cursed hill in Nightfall territory. Every bruise I earned from hauling what no one else wanted to carry, it all led to this moment.

I bent my knees. Shifted his weight. Took one step.

Then another.

And another.

Dragging him wasn’t graceful. My back screamed. My knees shook. My arms ached so badly I couldn’t tell if it was muscle strain or the onset of collapse. But I kept going, teeth clenched, each breath a knife in my chest.

The smoke grew thicker. My healing energy flared around us, but even that was weakening. The more I used it, the more it drained me.

Soon enough, we reached the exit of the cave. I pulled Cassian’s body through the stumbled directly into the forest.

gap,

then

The miasma hit like a wall.

The air was heavy, laced with that same suffocating stench. I wrapped more of my power around us, shielding him, shielding me. But it was weaker now.

Mud sucked at my boots. Branches whipped across my face. The rain beat down, plastering my hair to my skin and turning the forest floor into a treacherous mire. Each step felt like wading through cement.

And still–I did not stop.

I didn’t give myself permission to stop.

Even when my vision dimmed. Even when I fell to my knees and had to crawl for a stretch, dragging him behind me like a dying soldier. Even when my fingers turned numb and my legs stopped responding.

I kept going.