The wretchedness of his exhausted face had been replaced with a glow of power. Fire flickered in his eyes and embers warmed his skin from within. His black shirt was unbuttoned just enough to reveal a triangle of his chest—a chest that was flawless and smooth without any sign of the broken vitalsync core.
Rushing toward him, I pulled aside his shirt and dragged my fingertips over his heart. “It’s gone! H-How is it gone?”
His eyebrows furrowed as he looked down and studied where I touched him. His frown deepened as his hand came up and locked around my wrist.
Snow flurried thicker as his gaze turned pitch-black with feral anger. “You.”
I tried to twist my wrist free, a small squeak falling free. “Me? What about me?”
“What were youthinking? What did I tell you, huh? What did I tell you would happen if you ever put yourself in danger again?”
I blinked, remembering our conversation on the terrace. The ultimatum he’d given me, half-drunk but deadly serious.
“Answer the question, Rook.”
I narrowed my eyes. “If you’re mad about what I did, I don’t care. I’m not apologising for saving your life,Lucien.”
“I’m not asking you to.” His tone turned black as night. “But you do owe me a promise to stay alive!”
“You’re the one who started it!” I yelled back, falling into a fight I hadn’t planned on having. “Did you honestly think I would accept you dying in my arms? Did you truly think I’d shrug, bury you, and then return to my life as if nothing had ever happened?”
“Yes!”
“Can’t you just say thank you? Can’t you accept that I love you so much, I would happily risk everything to save you?”
“No. I can’t.” His entire body shook as if he was moments away from snapping. “Because your life is worth so much more than mine.”
“My life meansnothingif you’re gone.”
“Exactly!” he roared. “I told you I wouldn’t cope if something ever happened to you. I was pretty fucking honest when I said I wouldn’t know what to do with myself if you died.”
The wintery rush in my veins sang louder the longer we stood in this strange place. I had no idea where we were or how we got here.
Memories of watching him die crushed me all over again. How he’d burned up, broken apart, and disappeared. It’d destroyed me. It’d shown me just how far I’d go to keep him, not just that time buteverytime.
“I forbid you from ever putting yourself in danger again!” His anger tore at me with teeth and fire—
But the sky suddenly shattered with a thunderclap.
Silver auroras exploded above with ribboning shards, lighting up every ugly, broken thing inside me as if they’d been waiting for this very moment.
He’d kept his plans hidden...just like he had at Cinderkeep.
He hadn’ttrustedme and gone up that mountain on his own.
If only he’d listened to me, told me—
Lucien stiffened as all my secrets and grievances poured free.
I couldn’t stop it.
He saw everything. Every terrible thing I’d done to keep him.
I became a monster as I collected souls, fed on death, and didn’t care who I harmed if it meant I could save him. I harnessed the power of love to reap disaster, and I wouldneverforgive myself because he might’ve killed so many that night, but I’d massacred half of the mountain to keep him.
The auroras spun faster as I tried to capture his ashes with shaking hands. How I went half-mad, willing his body back into existence by reversing time all over again.
Lucien staggered as the sky showed me reaching my limit andscreaming.
