I turned to Sebastian, his fear stricken face sending chills throughout me. I didn't want to leave this world without him—we’d only just started our story. But if I was going to die in this battle, he didn't need to be there to see it.
“Kiss me,” I demanded, and he did without hesitation.
He would want to kill me for what I was about to do, but I’d already be dead by the next time he saw me.
I still tasted him on my lips when I broke our kiss. “You know how much I love you, right?” I asked, my heart shattering with the question.
Sebastian raised an eyebrow. “Yes. And you know how much I love you, right?”
“Of course.” My voice shook.
“Why are you asking me this?”
My lip quivered. “Do you trust me?”
Sebastian stepped towards me, reaching a hand out to my upper arm. “Maeve…What?—”
I used his touch to my advantage while I tapped into my magic. Though it would take up a good portion of my strength, I powered through, cracking the solid shell of his mental shield.
“Leave my side. Fight this war without me. Find me when it's all over.” I left out the part about finding my corpse. That would be too distracting, and he needed to have his full attention on winning this battle.
Sebastian's eyes sank instantly when he realized what I'd done.
“I'm sorry…” My voice quaked in a whisper. “My time spent loving you has been the greatest chapter of my life. My only regret is that our story was too short.” I bit my lip, fighting back tears.
His own eyes flooded over in tears of betrayal, but he couldn't fight my compulsion. He followed my orders without another word, pulling his helmet on and turning to follow the path that Sawyer led.
He didn't know that this was the last time he'd see me alive. The ache from that truth was the worst thing I had ever felt—and I had just lost my family.
It's for the best.
My lungs burned as I watched him leave. “I love you,” I said one last time, though he was already too far away to hear me.
With a sniffle, I pulled myself together and revealed my sword from its bounds, then marched in the opposite direction of the man I’d been blessed to love.
Chapter
Forty-Three
SEBASTIAN
How could she do this?
How could Ilet herdo this? I had my shields up, and they were pretty damn strong in preparation for combat—at least I thought they were. I knew she could break through them when she really wanted to, but I never expected her to use her magic on me like this.
I tried everything in my being to not leave her, but as soon as she broke through my barriers, I had no other choice. My legs started moving without my telling them to, and before I knew it, she was gone.
She thought I was oblivious, but as soon as she said her command, I knew why she did it.
She told me about her visions, described them to me in detail. This war we were fighting—she'd seen it before. She'dlivedit before in her dreams. She had walked this same field filled of death and torture.
For months, she'd been agonizing over the sacrifice, and I'd fought my own mind's concerns about it to keep her off the ledge. Inside though, I’d been battling unnerving fear over her safety and her life.
Now, all of a sudden she wasn't worried about dying.Why?
There must be something she hadn't told me. What? Beats the fuck out of me. But I knew that it was the reason for her compelling me.
I forced my way through crowds of soldiers, swiping and slicing through their bodies as they came at me. My magic assisted me when needed. In fact, I had just summoned a solid brick of ice, which I dropped on the head of a Draemornian. The woman's skull cracked and burst open from the pressure, splattering my boots with skull fragments.
