But he does not flinch. Does not show fear. Only resolve.Sacrifice.
I would do inexplicable things to keep you safe.
A scream of pure, unadulterated agony rips free from her throat.
Maireth steps forward at last, black silk whispering across the stone.
“This is the part,” she says softly, “where you obey.”
Elyssara glares at her through blood and blur.
Marin’s eyes meet hers over Maireth’s shoulder.
And there—there it is again.
That look.
Not mockery or triumph.
Urgency.
Move.
The realization lands too late to understand, but just in time to obey.
Elyssara staggers up, one hand clamped to her side.
Kael is fighting still, but the barbed Aether restraints are tightening, dragging him down inch by inch.
Their tether thrashes between them, stretched so tight she thinks it might snap.
Another chain locks around his wrists.
His knees hit stone.
Terror claws its way out of her in a broken sob.
“Until the Stars claim me,” she says, though she does not know if it is promise or prayer or goodbye.
Kael lifts his head, blood dripping from his lips, a defiant snarl still shaping his lips.
For one impossible heartbeat, through all the black, all the rot, all the ruin—she finds him.
Ocean-lightning.
A flicker.
A shard.
Enough.
“In every lifetime,” he breathes.
Then a soldier slams the butt of his weapon into the back of her knees.
Elyssara drops, rolls, grabs the fallen sword beside her, and drives it blind into flesh.
A scream.
