Deyric’s head snapped up, his face pale, his breathing uneven.
“I went with him willingly.” She nearly gagged on the words. “It’s not what you think.”
Maybe—maybe—she could even convince herself of that.
Deyric’s body wavered. “Don’t say another word,” he panted. “You don’t know what you’re doing.”
She shook her head. She had to make him believe it. Had to keep him safe.
“We had fun, Deyric.” Her voice was thinner now, breathless from the unnatural cold clawing through her ribs. “But I’ve wanted Caelith for years. I’ve known he was my mate since the first moment I laid eyes on him.”
The pain—Goddess above, the pain—
It was unbearable, an unseen force sinking hooks into her ribs, twisting, pulling, trying to rip something out of her she hadn’t even known was there. She clenched her teeth against the nausea threatening to drop her, bracing herself against the broken kitchen counter.
“You…” Why couldn’t she say it. Why couldn’t she force the words past her lips. It was just words. Just a lie. So why did it feel like her essence was splintering apart?
Deyric inhaled, his chest rising like he was trying to keep himself standing through sheer force of will. “Stop.”
His eyes—Goddess, his eyes. She could have sworn she saw tears gathering there, but she refused to look too closely. Refused to let herself see what she was doing to him.
“Aren’t.” Her throat closed around the word and Deyric staggered.
“Don’t say it, not a third time.” His voice barely held together.
“My mate.”
The world broke.
A sound, high and keening, like a bell tolling through the very fabric of existence, rang through the air.Thrice said. It is done.The words, coming from nowhere and everywhere, threatened to split her skull in two. Every nerve in her body ignited with a raw, blinding agony, not fire, not ice—worse, something deeper, something wrong.
Her vision blurred. The world tilted, and a connection she had never even felt before ripped apart.
Deyric let out a strangled sound—somewhere between a gasp and a cry—before he collapsed, his entire body crumpling to the floor.
He didn’t move.
Darkness swallowed her.
Then light.
Then darkness again.
Pain came in waves—crushing, suffocating, unlike anything she had ever known. It owned her, dragged her under, and fractured her thoughts until all that remained was the all-consuming wrongness threading through every nerve in her body.
What is happening?This was worse than the aftereffects of a night out, even if Caelith had… had done something to her.And why was it affecting Deyric, too?
She choked on the air, her vision swimming as she blinked up at the ceiling, her limbs useless, leaden.
Somewhere, close, Deyric still lay motionless. A broken sound caught in her throat as she tried to move, to reach for him. Her fingers twitched. Her body screamed.
What is wrong with him?
She forced her head to turn, the movement agony, but she needed to see him, needed to know that he was all right.
What did I do?The world faded in and out, time slipping between her fingers like sand.
She didn’t know how long she lay there, her face pressed against the cold floor, barely conscious. Then, through her haze, she sawDeyric stir. Slowly, painfully, he pushed himself up onto his hands and knees.
