“We’ll leave as soon as Noc appears.” Oz’s voice was thick, and he glanced past me toward the lake.
The gates groaned open and we all straightened, eyes laser-focused on the figures emerging. Hope disappeared with the sight of a young couple dressed in evening wear. They smiled and waved at someone behind the gates before hooking a left, following the narrow path lining the capital’s walls toward a glistening cemetery a short distance away. I’d never been so frustrated with someone for simply going on a stroll.
Letting out a shaky exhale, I dropped my head into my hands. “Noc, where are you?”
Something icy teased the back of my neck before slipping around my throat. “I’m right here.”
I yanked my head up and spun around.
Noc.
Tears flooded my eyes. Safe. He was safe. Noc stood perfectly still in a wreath of endless shadows, one of which was still locked in place around my neck. Chills seeped into my skin, and the tendril tightened a fraction. His cheek was smeared in blood, and blank eyes flitted about us. Dark. Endless. Unreachable.
“Thank the gods.” Kost moved toward him and then froze by my side. “What’s wrong?”
Noc blinked once. “Nothing.”
Kost shifted closer to me. “Are you sure?”
“Yeah, you don’t look so hot.” Oz came up on my other side and placed a hand on my shoulder. Warmth ebbed into my skin from his touch, heightening the chill around my neck.
“Noc.” I snuck a hand to my throat and stroked the shadow. The usual soothing feel was gone, and icy needles lodged themselves in my fingers. Steadying myself with a slow breath, I fought the urge to yank my hand away. “It’s okay. Everyone is fine. Safe.”
His eyes skipped from my fingers to the tendril of darkness swirling around me. A frown tugged at his brows. “What?”
When I swallowed, the noose tightened. “You’re here now. Everything is okay.”
His face contorted, and he held his hand out before him. Blood leaked around his fingers and fed monstrous red blades that grew right out of his forearms. They had ripped through the fabric of his coat and were shining with sickening wetness in the ocher light of the setting sun. A battle raged in his eyes. Something dark and foreign and beyond my reach. That damn oath on in his inner wrist practically pulsed with power, as if it were a reckoning of sorts that threatened to shatter Noc’s control.
He’s running out of time.
Before I could think, I stepped out of the safety of Oz’s and Kost’s reach and toward the mortal danger that was my lover. Shadows flared and wrapped us in an impenetrable cocoon. Kost and Oz shouted, but their cries were dim against the thick blanket of darkness. The snarling mess of tendrils lashed out, raising welts along my skin, but I didn’t care. All I saw was Noc, lost and alone. But I would save him. I would bring him back.
Every. Damn. Time.
Wrapping him in my arms, I pressed my face into his neck and dug my nails into his back. Did whatever I could to anchor myself to his presence. A groan scraped through him, and I bit back tears as I waited for him to return my embrace. Limp arms hung by his sides, but his hands twitched.
“Come back to me.” I swallowed twice and tasted salty tears on my lips. “Noc, please.” Then, remembering that moment outside the abandoned house, I channeled my power to my emblem. Rosewood light battled against the swirling darkness around us.
His heart thudded against my chest. “Lee…na.” Words raspy and fighting for purchase, his voice was barely audible. But it was enough.
I latched on hard. “Yes. It’s me. I’m here. I love you.”
A fissure of light cracked through the maelstrom of shadows. Cautious hands hovered above my waist. “I can’t remember.”
“Don’t say that.” Red-hot tears rolled down my cheeks. Pulling back, I cupped his chilled face and trailed a thumb over his scar. “C’mon, Noc. Tell me you love me.”
He stared at me without seeing me. “I can’t… I can’t remember who you are to me. Why am I so…conflicted?”
My heart splintered and cracked into pieces, and I swear he heard the sound. His puzzled eyes dropped to my heaving chest, and he placed one hand over my heart. I willed him to feel all those little broken shards. To know that he had the power to solder them back together. Everything I’d ever wanted was dissolving before me. And I couldn’t stop it. Couldn’t wrench the confusion and foreign rage from his eyes. All I could do was watch and lose myself because my heart was his. And if he couldn’t remember what we were for each other…then why did any of it matter? Why did the gods bring us together just to rip us apart?
I would fight until my dying breath to keep us whole. No matter the cost.
“You listen to me, Noc.” My lips quivered, and I placed both hands over his. Right over the top of my heart. The rosewood light from my symbol sharpened. “No matter what happens, even if you can’t remember why you’re fighting, I will always love you. I swear to you, I will bring you back. I will find a way.”
A single tear raced toward his jaw. Heat bloomed beneath his touch and the shadows dropped, racing back to him in a flurry of motion. His blood blades dissipated in a pool of liquid at our feet as Kost and Oz leapt back into view. Their wild gazes tore over us, searching for injuries, and paused at the space where our hands rested.
My nails pricked the back of his hand. “Noc?”
