The Struggle(43)

I nodded, but as soon as he crossed the balcony, I closed my eyes and searched for Josie. There’d be no sleep tonight. Tomorrow . . . tomorrow I would need to feed, but that was something I didn’t want to really think about at the moment. The void opened up and I didn’t expect—holy shit! There! I felt Josie, felt her entire being, and I could catch the scent of pine and rich soil as if I was standing in the forest instead of by the ocean. I saw her imprint, and I knew I could latch onto it.

“Aiden.” I spun, eyes wide. “I feel her.”

“What?” He whipped around. “Josie?”

“Yes. I feel her. Holy fuck, I feel her. She’s there.” It was like a burning light inside me, calling out to me. “I need to go.”

“Wait.” Aiden hurried back. “Take me with you. You can do that, right? This could be a trap. You know that.”

I supposed it could be. If it was a trap, I’d explode every single one of them, but I had to be smart about this. I could use Aiden. “If I get tied up fighting, you go to her. You get her out of there. Go anywhere. I’ll find you and bring you back here.”

He gave a curt nod.

Wrapping my hand around his forearm, I found the imprint of her again, and then willed myself to where she was, bringing Aiden along with me. It only took seconds to move from the balcony and discover that we were obviously on the other side of the world, under a canopy of thick elms that blocked daylight.

“Holy hell,” Aiden grunted, stumbling back a step. “That doesn’t feel right.”

I stepped forward, scanning the trees and ground as my heart thundered in my chest. Senses were firing off left and right. We weren’t alone. There was something very powerful here that wasn’t Josie. Approaching a moss-covered tree that had been snapped at the trunk and had fallen over, I scanned the area and kept all senses on high alert.

My knees weakened, and fuck, I was about to eat dirt as I lurched forward.

I saw her.

I saw Josie.

She was lying on her side, back to me. Her hair was a tangled mess and the entire back of her shirt was covered in dirt. She was still, too still.

“Josie?” My voice broke, actually cracked when I said her name.

No movement. Not even a twitch.

Slamming a hand down on the fallen tree, I vaulted over it and landed in a crouch next to her. I placed my hand on her arm. Her skin was cold to the touch. I started to say her name again, but I couldn’t find my voice.

Carefully, I eased her onto her back, gently brushing away the strands of hair plastered to her face, and I . . . I forgot how to breathe.

In that moment, I knew two things. I most definitely had a heart. It was there, in my chest, and I knew that a heart could truly break, because mine shattered into jagged pieces.

“Josie,” I whispered, her name pained and brittle.

Bruises of all colors mottled her pale face. A violent purplish contusion covered her right cheek and eye. The skin was swollen, and I doubted she could open the eye if she were awake. Another deep blue bruise marred her forehead. Her lips were chapped, the bottom one cut. Dried blood lined her temple. My gaze drifted over her. Bruises along her neck. Fingerprints clearly marked her skin. Bite marks. Even her feet were scratched and caked with blood. Every piece of skin I could see had been damaged.

But she was alive.

That much I knew, because her chest rose with shallow, uneven breaths.

“Is she okay?” Aiden called from somewhere nearby as I noticed there were two slim, goldish bands on her wrists that I hadn’t seen before.

I tried to speak again, but I had to clear my throat. “I-I don’t think so.”

Aiden muttered a curse.

Sliding an arm under her body, I winced when she whimpered. Intense, blinding, burning rage filled me, a primitive fury that begged to be unleashed. The scent of burnt ozone filled the forest, along with a burst of power.

I sensed the Titan just as I gathered her in my arms. “Aiden,” I warned, rising quickly. “We’re not—”

“Alone,” he answered. “I know.”

Turning around, I spotted the Titan standing several feet from Aiden, and I recognized him immediately. “Perses,” I growled. “It has been a while.”

“It has.” The dark-skinned Titan raised his hands as he followed my movements with his all-black gaze. “I’m not here to make war.”

Keeping my gaze trained on him, I stalked around the fallen tree and stood beside Aiden. His audible inhale when he saw the condition she was in sent nails drilling straight into my spine.

“I’m helping you.” Perses lowered his hands slowly. “They had her warded. I figured that since you’re now a . . . god,” he sneered, “you’d been trying to sense her out. She needed to be removed from the wards for that to happen. This was the second time I brought her out. You’re lucky.”