“That’s Kara,” Peri said, rage filling her voice.
Gerick heard her pain and thought of the child she carried.
Everything was happening at once now.
The realms no longer had time for denial.
“What happens if I hold on?”Gerick asked quietly.
The Great Luna’s eyes filled with sorrow.“The foundations continue fracturing around divided truths.”
Myanin made a broken sound.
Shade closed his eyes briefly.
Gerick already knew the answer before he asked the next question.
“And if I let her go?”
The goddess looked toward Myanin.
“Then love becomes sacrifice instead of possession, and I will dissolve the bond that binds your lives.”
The words settled through the clearing.
Simple.
Terrible.
True.
Myanin crossed the corridor toward him frantically as the Nushtonia collapsed around her in burning strips of parchment and gold light.
“You do not get to decide if I’m worth dying for!”she screamed.
Gerick laughed softly despite the agony tearing through his chest.
“You know,” he said, voice roughened with emotion, “that may be the most affectionate thing you’ve ever yelled at me.”
She hit the tear hard enough to make it ripple.“Gerick.”
His name shattered in her voice.
Shade reached her then, gripping her shoulders as the corruption exploded upward through the corridor behind them.
The djinn male’s silver eyes met Gerick’s again.
Understanding passed silently between them.
Not friendship.
Not forgiveness.
Something harder earned than either.
Take care of her.
With my life.
