Free Spellbound by Sylvia Day Page A

he said hoarsely, crawling toward her as debris rattled down and mingled with the snowflakes. “You can’t leave me here alone.”
    Max caught her up and pulled her into his lap. Chanting one spell after another. Trying everything he knew, black and white magic, anything at all to heal her and bring her back to him.
    But she didn’t move, her chest did not rise and fall with breath, her eyelids didn’t flutter over the brilliant emerald irises he adored.
    â€œKitten . . . ,” he sobbed. “You can’t leave me here alone . . . you can’t leave me . . . ”
    Rocking her, Max pressed shaking lips to her forehead and felt his sanity slipping from him like sands through an hourglass.
    â€œHeal her!” His command cracked through the night, reaching out to the Council who heard and saw everything. “Heal her or I will hunt you down,” he hissed. “Every last one of you. I’ll kill you all. I swear it.”
    We told you this would happen, They crowed. Her loss is the penalty for your arrogance.
    Max’s jaw tightened. His gaze narrowed on Victoria, who looked beautiful and oddly peaceful. Her skin pale and luminous like a pearl, her thick lashes spiked from tears and melting snow. She glowed. Softly, faintly. With an inner radiance.
    Stilling, Max took in that hint of illumination. And what it signified.
    The magic within her still lived. Darius’s magic.
    You can’t have her, Max growled, fury overtaking his crushing grief. She’s mine.
    There were consequences for penetrating the Transcendual Realm. Dire penalties.
    He didn’t care.
    He would be stained, marked. Some would hunt him as a rogue. Peace would be ephemeral with a price on his head.
    Max didn’t hesitate. It would all be worth it. If he had Victoria.
    Slicing across his wrist with a sliver of magic, he held his arm above the wounds in Victoria’s chest. The crimson of his blood blended with the snow and dripped onto her charred flesh. The mixture sizzled atop her skin and smoke rose.
    Max closed his eyes and began to incant.
    Victoria woke with a gasp and found herself lying in a field of yellow flowers. The air was redolent of lilies and sun-warmed grass, and butterflies flitted through the air in rarely seen numbers.
    Pushing up to a seated position, she perused her surroundings with greater care, attempting to reconcile the beauty of the summer day with the snow-covered alley she’d occupied just a moment before. She looked down, noting the simple linen shift she wore, cleanly cut and unadorned. Her hand lifted to her unmarred chest and she frowned.
    Where was Max? And where was she?
    A masculine hand penetrated her vision.
    Her gaze lifted and came to rest on a beloved face she thought she would never see again.
    â€œDarius.”
    â€œHello, Vicky.” His beautiful mouth curved in a loving smile. The sunlight lit his golden hair with a luminousness that stole her breath and tightened her chest. Her favorite dimple dotted his cheek and brought back a flood of treasured memories.
    â€œWhere are we?”
    She accepted the hand he held out to her, allowing him to pull her to her feet.
    â€œTogether,” he said simply. “Although I’ve always been with you.”
    Darius linked his fingers with hers. “Walk with me?”
    â€œAm I dead?”
    His head tilted to the side, as if listening to something she couldn’t hear. His handsome features took on a thoughtful cast and his lips pursed. Then he set off, pulling her along with him, forgetting to answer her. Or choosing not to.
    As they strolled, recognition of their location came to her—the south of France. One of the many places they’d visited and enjoyed as a couple.
    â€œHave you been here the whole time?” she asked.
    â€œNo. I switch it up every now and then.”
    â€œâ€…‘Switch it up’?”
    He glanced aside at her with a familiar twinkle