Chapter 48: The Final Battle

"Atreus!" Layla screamed. The ruby-inlaid dagger Layla had gotten from Niniane dropped from Atreus' hand before he crumpled to the ground. "Oh, God!"

Layla ran to him desperately, a fleeting thought of how he'd managed to get the dagger running through her mind. Had he returned to the cemetery the night she was kidnapped to retrieve it?

When Layla reached Atreus, his skin was still burning under the sun's unrelenting power. Ravana watched with a cold expression as Layla used all her strength to pull Atreus from the circle of light.

Slowly, one tug at a time, Layla tugged Atreus' slack body until he was safe in the shadows. Turning him on his back, she dropped to her knees beside him and put her hands on his cheeks, trying to ignore the brutal cauterized wound on his throat caused by the dagger.

"Atreus?" she sobbed. "Please, please don't go."

Yet, the more that she tried to wake him, the more apparent it was that he was gone. His beautiful face, although covered with red blist