Draevyn was silent, but the storm behind his eyes said everything. There was grief, rage, and she sensed that same hint of terror that hadn’t seemed to have left either of them.
If this worked, it wouldn’t just be his blood that saved her. It would be hislove. And love was something neither of them gave freely,but it kept them both crawling back to one another as if it were the only thing keeping them alive.
Esmyra had never craved anyone the way she did him. And if she survived this, she would never again let him go. Draevyn was the flames of her wildfire, and she would bring hell upon the fates if they ever tried to tear them apart again.
She swallowed hard, reaching for his hand as she laid back against the quilted fabric. Draevyn helped guide her down like she was something precious.
Even now, when she felt like a sinking ship dragging him down with her, he still chose her.
Esmyra lay flat on her stomach, cheek pressed to the pillow as her heart thundered beneath her.
Draevyn kneeled beside the table, his warm hand brushing a strand of hair from her face. “You’re not alone in this. Not with me here.”
His lips grazed the shell of her ear, and her eyes burned as she choked back her emotions.
Then Jenli’s voice cut through the silence. “I feel as though I should warn you that this will hurt,” she said. “Possibly more painful than anything you’ve felt before.”
Esmyra held back her snort. The truth was, she didn’t think anything physical could possibly hurt as terribly as all her heart had endured.
She swallowed, lifted her chin slightly, and exhaled. “I can take it.”
“That’s my girl,” Draevyn whispered, and it brought a subtle smile to her lips.
Jenli’s footsteps padded softly around the table, her presence suddenly feeling impossibly heavy. Esmyra could feel Draevyn’s hand still at her temple, a silent promise that he wasn’t going anywhere. She closed her eyes and tried to focus on that instead of the nausea pooling in her belly.
“Hold still,” Jenli murmured. “I need to find exactly where it is.”
Esmyra flinched at the first touch of fingertipsalong her spine, and a bead of sweat rolled down her forehead as the room suddenly became impossibly small.
But when Jenli’s fingers reached the space between her shoulder blades, the pressure shifted. She pressed lightly, just above the center of it all, and a pain unlike anything Esmyra had ever known exploded through her.
A strangled scream tore from her throat before she could stop it. White-hot agony pulsed down her limbs, ripping through her nerves like molten glass. Her legs kicked involuntarily, and her fingers clawed into the quilt beneath her.
Draevyn’s hand flew to hers instantly, gripping tight.
“I’m here,” he breathed, cupping her cheek as he pressed his forehead to hers. “I’ve got you. I’ve got you, baby.”
She couldn’t answer him. She couldn’t even breathe.
The pain was more than physical. It felt like the shards were tangled in her very soul, refusing to let her go.
“Jenli, what the fuck are you doing to her?!” Jak bellowed from the door, horror evident in his voice.
Jenli stepped back, her face grim as she looked down at Esmyra. “I’ll need to cut carefully… through the flesh above the spine.”
Esmyra forced her jaw to unclench, teeth aching from the tension, though she barely registered it. Her entire body was trembling, drenched in sweat, but she nodded once, weakly. “Do it,” she rasped.
“Brace yourself,” Jenli warned. “You cannot move. If I slip…”
Esmyra gave a humorless chuckle and dug her forehead into the pillow. “If you slip, maybe I’ll finally get some damn rest.”
“No one’s slipping,” Draevyn growled as his thumb brushed over her knuckles.
That was what made her truly brace herself. Not Jenli’s warning, not the blade she knew was about to tear through her, but his voice. The crack in it.
Esmyra took one last breath and stilled her body as best she could. “I’m ready.”
No, she wasn’t. She absolutely fucking wasn’t.
