Chapter Thirty-Five
NO.
NO.
NO!
I curled over the reason for my existence as she died in my arms. I kissed her forehead, her cheeks, her ice-blue lips.
For a second, I was allowed to keep her, but then auroras screamed across the heavens with violent streaks. A shockwave of raw power tore through the night.
The earth shook, the stars shivered. And the rest of her body shattered like spun glass.
I couldn’t breathe as she exploded into a cloud of tiny silver stars and snowflakes, scattering through the night like glimmering ashes.
My arms went from holding her to being empty.
I-I couldn’t believe it.
She couldn’t be gone.
It...it just wasn’t possible.
I stared at the empty space where she’d been.
Waiting.
My arms stayed curled around nothing, not daring to move just in case.
She’d come back.
Any second now.
The firealwaysbrought her back. It’d woken me in time to come for her. I’d felt her pain even in the depths of mine and I’dcomefor her. I’d stoppeddyingfor her.
Why wasn’t it enough?
Why wasn’t she coming back?
She’d survived laboratories and torture, disasters and nightmares. She’d survived things that should’ve killed her a thousand times over. This was no different.
Come back...
Youhaveto come back.
I scrambled forward on my hands and knees, grabbing at the stars dissolving into the darkness. She’d simply fallen apart. That was all.
“Stop scaring me, Rook.” A manic laugh escaped me. “This isn’t funny anymore.”
Nothing answered.
No tug on the bond.
No whisper in my heart.
Empty silence stretched.
For the first time since I’d met her, I couldn’t feel her.
