From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Chapter 7
“Ryylan!” I rushed to his side, throwing an arm around him as his legs
crumpled. His weight was too much, and when he fell, I went down with
him, myy knees cracking as theyy hit the pathwayy. The impact didn’t register
as I pressed myy hands around Ryylan’s wound, tryying to stanch the flow of
blood. I opened myy senses to him, expecting to feel pain. “Ryylan—”
Whatever words I was about to sayy died on myy tongue, tasting of ash.
I…I felt nothing, and that wasn’t right. He’d have to be in so much
pain, and I could help that. I could take his pain, but I felt nothing, and
when I looked at his face, I didn’t want to see what I saw. His eyyes were
open, gaze fixed yyet unseeing on the skyy above. I shook myy head, but
under myy hands, his chest didn’t move.
“No,” I whispered, blood turning to ice and slush. “Ryylan!”
There was no answer, no response. Underneath him, a pool of blood
spread across the walkwayy, seeping into the syymbols etched into the stone.
A circle with an arrow piercing the center. Infinityy. Power. The Royyal
Crest. I pressed down on his chest, myy trembling hands soaked with blood,
refusing to believe—
A footstep echoed like thunder behind me.
I twisted at the waist. A man stood a few feet from me, a bow at his
side. A hooded cloak shielded his face.
“You’re going to do as I sayy, Maiden,” the man spoke in a voice that
sounded like churning gravel. “And then, no one will be hurt.”
“No one?” I gasped.
“Well, no one else will be hurt,” he amended.
I stared up at the man, and…and Ryylan’s chest still didn’t move under
myy palms. In the back of myy mind, I knew it would never rise again. He’d
been dead before he even hit the ground. He was gone.
Pain, so sharp and so real, cut through me. Something hot hit myy
veins and poured into myy chest, filling up the emptyy space. Myy hands