“Your one true love. Your souls match. Your destiny.”
She is mine. I am hers. Forever. All along, that tether, that pull, that inability to stay away. It was because she was my mate.
Maelkar gasps, stepping forward toward Daisy. “Shit… shit. Shit.”
I stagger upright, my wings spreading unconsciously. “What is it? What’s wrong?”
He leans forward, staring at Daisy’s unmoving body. His face goes pale—truly pale. I’ve never seen the bastard look afraid before.
“She is fleeting,” he whispers. “Her body… It is not responding well.”
My blood runs cold. “What the fuck does that mean?”
“She is dying,” Maelkar says, and this time, even his voice breaks.
Rage erupts in me. I lunge forward, grabbing him by his robes and slamming him against the bone wall. “Then fucking help her!”
He doesn’t fight back. His black eyes just meet mine with a terrifying expression.
“I can’t. You need light to conquer the dark. Something was placed on her soul long ago. Something that does not want her back. Someone does not want her to return. Only the purest of light can heal this.”
Panic drowns me. She’s my mate. I can’t fucking lose her now.
“No,” I snarl. “No. My magic is too low—I can’t open a gate.” I punch the stone altar so hard it cracks straight down the centre. “HELP ME!” I’ll give you anything. Anything!”
Maelkar stares, slowly nodding. “I don’t want anything from you, Prince. But promise me this—if she survives, remind her who helped you.”
If. There can’t be an if, only a when. I can no longer imagine my life without Daisy. I don’t know if that’s the soul bond—the mate bond. I have no idea. But I don’t think I could survive without her. I need her.
“Yes!” I roar. “Fine. Just fucking help me.”
“I need a soul pact, Korithax. Now.”
I snatch the curved blade and drag it across my palm, the cut deep and stinging. I thrust it at him, blood pouring from the wound, the dripping sound of my blood hitting stone, hammering against my skull. “Hurry the fuck up!”
Maelkar slices his own palm and slams it into mine. Our blood mixes, the light explodes—our magic colliding so loud the chamber rattles. The walls tremble, the bones seeming to moan as the trapped spirits shriek behind the walls.
“It is done,” he pants. “Now take her. I’ll open the gate to Luminaria, but you have to get her there. Fast.”
I scoop Daisy into my arms, and gods, she’s cold. Her once blush lips are pale, so fucking pale.
“Stay with me,” I whisper, gripping her tighter. “Don’t you fucking dare leave me. I will cleave you back from the heavens themselves if I have to. Nothing and nobody will survive if you do not stay with me.”
Maelkar kneels beside the runes, letting his violet blood from our pact drip onto the sigil etched into the floor. It glows so violently I have to squint my eyes.
“Stand there. Hold onto her tight. If you let go, I cannot tell you where she will end up.”
I step into the circle, holding her to my chest like my life depends on it. Because it does.
“Please, little flower,” I whisper. “Please stay with me.”
The air tears open. A wind so powerful it shreds the darkness, wraps around us, pulling, tearing, dragging me forward. My wings snap out, wrapping around us to shield her. Everything goes pitch black, the sensation of falling wracking my body as I grip Daisy with everything I have. Ahead, light, blinding and endless, pours towards us, and I feel a sense of hope filling me. But just as quickly as it comes, it leaves, just as I feel Daisy’s heartbeat stutter.
“NO!” I scream as we’re hurled into Luminaria.
The light blinds me.
We land in a thunderous quake, and I fall to my straight to my knees, still cradling her. I pant as I try and gather myself, the teleportation like nothing I’ve ever felt before. It felt like I’d travelled the entire universe, not just from one realm to another.
