“You were so small,” he murmured, his voice low and distant, eyes unfocused as the memory took him. “Like a little mouse. I almost stepped right over you.”
I let out a soft laugh that was more ache than amusement. “I was feral. Hissing at you like a damn alley cat.”
He smiled faintly, a real one, though it was dulled by exhaustion. “I remember thinking,who lets a wild thing survive like this?And then you looked at me with those big blue eyes, and I knew I couldn’t walk away.”
I rested my head against his chest, listening to the ragged rhythm of his heartbeat. “You didn’t just save me, Finn. Youkeptme alive. Through everything.”
He kissed the top of my head—soft, lingering. The kind of kiss that said what words couldn’t. The kind that made you feel like home existed in someone else's bones.
“I couldn’t exactly leave you there, sitting in that pile of dirt. You were only a kid back then.”
“Pfft, like you weren’t much older than me.” I said, “You were practically a kid yourself.”
“I feel older. Like I’m a hundred years or more. My bones ache.” He sighed.
“I know,” I whispered sadly.
“After everything, where I came from. Having you with me seemed right. Like we were meant to be together.” He whispered.
Finn didn’t talk about his past before he met me, but I knew it was painful for him. His body held scars both internal and external that were a map of horrors for his psyche. So I didn’t push. After all, I came from nothing too. We were both relics from a past that had discarded us both.
“Promise me something, Elira,” Finn murmured into my hair after a while.
I didn’t answer right away. My chest tightened. “What?” I finally whispered.
“Promise me… if something happens. If I don’t make it out of this…” His voice cracked, quiet and raw. “Promise me you’ll leave Varrowmere. Alone. Trust no one, just run. Get out.”
“No,” I breathed, already shaking my head. “Finn, don’t—”
“Elle,” he cut me off gently but firmly, “youdon’tbelong here. Not in this city, not in this life. Find that Starlit Sea. You’re meant for something more.”
“Not without you,” I said, voice rising despite myself. “I’m not leaving you behind, I don’t care if—”
“Yes. Without me,” he said, eyes suddenly sharp, pleading. “If you have to. If it comes to that. Please, Elle. Please.”
He pulled back just enough to look me in the eye, cupping my face in his rough, shaking hands. His brown eyes, always so full of kindness and mischief, were burning now with something far heavier. Urgency. Resignation. Love.
“Elle…” he said again, quieter this time. Like my name hurt to speak.
And for a moment, I saw the toll the city had taken on him. The way his skin hung a little too loosely around his cheeks, the lines etched into his brow that hadn’t been there a year ago. The red in his hair had begun to grey at the temples, strands I’d never noticed until now, as if time had crept in and painted him older behind my back.
The weight of the promise settled on my chest like a stone.
“Okay,” I whispered, throat tight. “I promise.”
But even as I said it, part of me knew—I’d break the world in half before I let it come to that.
Chapter 2
Elira
I waited until Finn was asleep before I made my move. His arms were still wrapped around me, even in rest, like some part of him was trying to keep me close. But I had the shadows on my side. With a thought, I let the darkness bloom across my skin like smoke. My arm dissolved into shifting mist, and I slipped from his embrace without a sound.
His skin burned beneath my fingers, hot like open flame. Sweat clung to him, soaking the shirt at his chest, and he reeked of fever. Sticky. Suffering. I knew I didn’t have long.
I crouched beside him and pressed a kiss to his brow.
“I refuse to let you die,” I whispered, voice barely audible over the rise and fall of his breath.
