“Ezra—”
“I never should have kissed you.”
He buries one hand in his platinum-blond hair and pulls hard on the roots. “You should run far, far away from me.”
His chest rises sharply. For a moment, he looks like he can't get enough air. “I remember.”
The confession tears itself out of him, his eyes squeezing shut.
“I remember who I am.”
Water begins to seep through the fractured glass, and Ezra puts himself between me and the tank. The metal reinforcing its edges as the corners groan.
The walls shake.
The temperature plummets, water exploding from the enclosure, crashing across the floor in a freezing wave. Shards of glass rain around us. Frost races over the floor and climbs the walls.
For one impossible heartbeat, the drowned prince remains perfectly still. Before his eyes snap open.
Chapter 46
Mercy
EZRA
Elio hits the floor hard.
A painful gasp tears from his chest. Another follows. Then another. He rolls onto his side, coughing up water as though his lungs are trying to expel an ocean. Gagging. Choking.
His fingers claw frantically at the marble beneath him, and his eyes dart wildly around the room. Unfocused. Terrified.
Blind.
“Ezra?” The word barely sounds human, his chest heaving in agony.
I take a step forward, the pounding inside my skull unbearable.
“Elio.”
The memories are there within reach, but they don’t form a complete puzzle yet. I still need to piece them together.
My brother throws his arms up in warning, his face twisting with pure hatred. “Don't touch me! Or I’ll turn you to solid ice!”
He scrambles backward. Bursts of ice spread around him, freezing the water at our feet, and a nearby pillar cracks with a deafeningsnap.
“All this time…” A hollow laugh escapes him. “All thisfucking time, I couldn't find a trace of you in any world, and yet you're still alive.”
Elio struggles to his feet, swaying dangerously. Frost flakes off his hair and skin, and his entire body shakes as he takes an unsteady step forward. “You should have left me in there.” Another wave of ice ripples outward. “I’m going to kill you.”
“Stop!” Max shouts from behind me.
Elio jolts backward, visibly spooked, and squints at us as though we're nothing more than blotches of shadow. “Who’s there?”
Max plants herself between us.
I sidestep, unwilling to let her act as a shield, but she motions for me to stay put.
“Your brother was cursed and exiled to the new world. He couldn’t touch anyone. He forgot who he was, forgot his family, his life. Everything.”
