The world has narrowed to Teddy’s blood beneath her hands and the terrifying, impossible realization that she cannot stop it. That no amount of magic, no Gateway, no thread, no bargain can pull him back from this.
“I hate you,” she chokes out suddenly. The words shatter apart as soon as they leave her mouth. Not truth—grief.
Because this is what he’s done—chosen her. Loved her. And left her anyway.
A weak laugh catches in his chest and turns into blood. “Yeah,” he rasps softly. “Fair.”
A weak smile ghosts across Teddy’s bloodied mouth.
“The sight of you,” he rasps, voice barely holding together now, “spread before me…”
Seren’s breath catches violently.
“…told you it’d be the last thing I saw.”
A sound breaks from Seren that does not feel human.
Because she remembers.
Gods, she remembers.
The heat of his mouth against her skin. The way he’d looked at her like devotion incarnate. The teasing certainty in his voice when he’d said the words.
And fuck—he’d meant them.
Her hands shake violently against his chest.
“Teddy…” she breaks. “Please.”
A prayer. His blood-covered fingers twitch weakly toward her face. Seren catches his hand instantly, pressing it against her cheek hard enough to hurt.
And gods. She has never loved anything the way she loves him in this moment.
Not because he is dying—because he chose her while he was living.
“Seren?” he breathes.
“I am here,” she rushes out, gripping his chest.
“You are worth being brave for.”
Seren’s heart fractures into a thousand pieces.
She nods. Because she understands now—he was always choosing her.
“Next life,” he whispers.
Seren’s breath shatters.
“Yes.”
His thumb brushes weakly against her cheek.
Then stills.
And then the world crashes back in around her.
Vren screams overhead with Lara gripping tightly around his neck, her braids of onyx whipping through the night sky while her magic cleaves through northmen below. Black-silver magic spears through the sky and tears another beast from the air. Its burning body plummets somewhere beyond the battlefield, exploding into stone and fire hard enough to shake the fractured ground beneath Seren’s knees. Another blast detonates across the city. Another scream follows it. Another death.
