Red

36. Countdown

is the chapter title suspenseful enough? WILL SCARLETT GET TO ROME FAST ENOUGH OR WILL HE SUFFER A TRAGIC DEATH?!

only time will tell... and guys let me tell you this chapter is the MOST INTENSE CHAPTER IVE EVER WRITTEN. EVER. you will likely cry. you will likely curl up into a ball as you read because it's definitely action-packed and it definitely will pull at your heart strings.

alsoooo to leave this authors note on a good note: for those of you who commented on my last chapter about big brother YALL KNOW MY BOY TYLER FINNA WIN. a true veto queeeeen i love him sm

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I couldn't think fast enough. Couldn't breathe fast enough.

My body and mind had shifted into something... Desperate. Relentless.

Viana had received an urgent mental message from her husband, Barone. Somehow he had found out about Jasper still being alive and his plans to kill Rome, and it was all he could share before the magic he had used to contact her faded away.

Rome was physically weakened, and Jasper could be knocking down the palace doors in who knows how many hours. Jasper, who I thought had died at my hands.

He was alive. But how? I watched the light go out of his eyes when I plunged that sword into his chest, right into his beating heart. So how was he still alive?

Viana could only watch me helplessly from the bedroom door as I flung on my newly-washed clothes I came in and slung the belt full of weapons around my waist at an inhuman speed.

There was no time to waste. I had to get back, and now.

"Scarlett, please take a minute—"

"There is no minute, Viana. I have to get back... I have to get back before—" I didn't realize I was crying until the tears were sliding down my cheeks and my words began to muffle into broken sobs.

Rome—who I had despised only months ago—had become a beacon in a vast sea of darkness and I relied on him to see, to think, to breathe, to live. A man I had come to see in a new light, and even care for—to think I couldn't be any more distraught and utterly hysterical was beyond my own better judgement. He was my mate, someone who I was supposed to live the rest of my life with and he could be gone in the blink of an eye.

She was pulling me into a hug before I could even shudder out another breath, and I cried helplessly into her shoulder as she stroked comforting circles across my back.

"We will get back in time. I've already asked Isra if they would be willing to come back with us and help out. He agreed." The words did little to comfort me at the moment, but I knew later I would beyond thankful. "He's preparing meals for the journey back, and Fareoh and Xael are readying their dragons to take us back quickly."

     "Dragons?" The thought of the once-mythical beasts I had read about in fairytales as a child sent an unpleasant shiver down my spine. "They have dragons?"

     "Yes," She releases me from her hug and gives me a quizzical expression. "Did you not know they are real?"

     "Well, I've never seen one and despite now knowing that the Underworld is full of strange creatures, it never crossed my mind."

"They're most definitely real, and they will get us back fast." She brushes a gentle hand across my cheek, wiping away stray tears. "Scarlett, we will get back in time. Rome will be safe. Even if Jasper gets there before us, he is perfectly capable of handling him."

"No, no, you don't understand." I pull at my hair. "Rome is sick. I had a vision of him last night while I was sleeping. He's not doing well with me being gone."