I release his hair, and the body slumps forward, all that black blood pooling on the cement floor.
But I’m only looking at Westlyn now.
At the silver runes glowing bright on every inch of her skin, her hair crackling with magic. She closes her eyes and the runes begin to spin and shift, gathering into one larger rune just below the hollow of her throat. I don’t know what it translates to, but it’s dark magic. Evil. I canfeelit in my fucking marrow, like everything inside me is suddenly filling with ice.
Then, the symbol collapses on itself, nothing more than a pinpoint of silver light.
Westlyn gasps, and it explodes out of her, light and shadow, flame and smoke.
Reedsy’s corpse jerks at my feet, and I glance down to see the rune glowing bright on the back of his neck. It burns into his skin like a brand, then vanishes.
Reedsy’s corpse turns entirely black.
Silence descends on us.
We all hold our breath.
But nothing happens.
Nothingbloodyhappens.
I can still feel the curse in my blood. Still feel that ticking clock in my heart.
It didn’t work. It didn’t fucking work, and now all I want is for Reedsy to rise up from the dead just so I can kill him all over again.
I never should have hoped, because that’s the fucking thing about it. Spend your whole immortal life without hope, and you don’t think twice about another ho-hum disappointment. But let it seep into the cracks of your heart for even amoment, and when it all goes to shit after that, the crushing disappointment explodes like a nuclear warhead.
Something inside me shatters. The last fragile thing holding me all together. That’s it. Fucking gone.
I drop to my knees with a roar that damn near shakes the foundation of the manor.
After everything. After every terrible thing, this—this onefuckingthing should’ve been ours.
Pain like nothing I’ve ever felt shreds my heart, liquifying it.
I wonder if this is what Reedsy felt in his final moments, because I know, deep down, that these terrible seconds can only bemyfinal moments.
But then…
The softest brush of lips against my ear. The scent of apples and magic. The touch of her fingers grazing my wing.
“Jude,” my little scarecrow whispers. “Open your eyes.Pleaseopen your eyes.”
Damn it. She knows I would never deny her. Not a fucking thing. And if she’s hurting, and I’ve still got the power to ease her pain…
I hold my breath and brace for the worst, slowly cracking open one eye, then the other.
But when I finally find the courage to meet her turquoise gaze, it’s not the sadness of an impossible goodbye I see reflected back at me.
It’s not even hope anymore. It’s past that. It’s…
It’s joy. Pure, unfiltered joy.
I get to my feet and cup her face, and she smiles at me and presses her palm to my heart.
“What do you feel?” she whispers.
“I feel… It’s…” I cover her hand with mine and suck in a deep breath, and then, out of fuckingnowhere, it’s like someone just kicked down the iron-bolted door inside me, letting in the light for the first time in fifteen hundred bloody years.
