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Pain and rage build inside me until I’m trembling with what feels like an earthquake in my bones. I will not outlive this grief.
No longer caring whether her skin remains lethal, I pull her lifeless body into my arms and hold her against me. The feel of her bared skin against mine is a pleasure I can’t remember feeling in all my thousands of years. It is also the most exquisite pain—experiencing it without her eyes open. Without her alive to share it.
Reverently, I lean down and brush a kiss over each of her closed lids.
When I sit up again, I feel it. A tingling in my lips. It spreads fast, sending a numbness across my mouth and down my throat. My hands tremble.
Fear grips me.
Not for myself.
But if I die here like this, who will save her?
I need Tori to live, dammit.
Urgency driving me, I run my hands over her body, frantic for something—anything—that could help her before I succumb to the poison.
When I reach her hip, I feel something solid in her pocket. Pulling out a small vial, I remember how Broca gave it to Tori to help her heal.
I have nothing left to lose and no time left. My left side has already become paralyzed. Knowing it’s my only shot, I use my right hand to uncap the vial and pour the drops of liquid down Tori’s throat.
The moment I do, the scent of the vial’s contents slams into me—a scent I know all too well and have spent five thousand years trying to forget.
Demon tears.
The shock of it here, now, has me reeling. I realize too late these are not just any demon tears.
These tears belong to my mother.
Did Tori know that?
Where the hell did she get them?
And what effect will they have on my mate’s survival? My mother always claimed the tears of a demon were lethal. A poison that packed potency unlike any other.
I can do nothing but wait.
A full minute.
Then two.
My right side becomes paralyzed. I slump to the side, leaning heavily on a large chunk of rock. My breathing slows. Hope is a light that grows dimmer by the second.
Another minute passes.
Tori doesn’t wake, and my hope bleeds away.
The grief closes over me, and I’m sucked beneath its anguished depths as I try to accept that I’ve truly lost her. I’m so immersed in the pain that it takes me a moment to realize the numbness is gone. I lift my hands then my arms and notice they’re back to normal.
The poison is gone.
I’m not going to die after all and the reality of that knowledge crushes me. How can I possibly live without her?
My grief sends me spiraling. I reach for her then, pulling her close and whispering her name.
The sudden warmth of Tori’s skin jolts me back to the moment.
I stare down at her as her cheeks begin to flush and her closed eyelids twitch. The scent of magic hits me then. A rotting, burning smell that reminds me of the creature who set all this in motion.
