Page 206 of Fallacies

Though I can’t imagine feeling any emptier than I do right now.

I flip the warm blade in my hand, catching my broken reflection in the metal.

At first, I don’t see myself. I see the girl the Captain found, lost and afraid. I see the person I became with him—the girl he loved, the girl he’d take to see the stars, the girl he saved countless times.

But it’s gone before I can savor it, that beautiful reflection morphing into someone new.

A woman. She’s cold, devastated, and utterly spent. She gave all she had trying to prove she wasn’t a monster, and none of it was good enough. She became one anyway. And he…

He swore her heart was good. Perhaps it was…

Anger flares in my chest, a barbed wire coiling around my ribcage.

Until he shattered it.

I flip the dagger and stab it into the earth. Hard. The hilt trembles with the force.

“Pax.” My voice is lifeless. Vacant.

His eyes find mine, and I ignore the man standing next to him.

“Tell Gemma I love her.”

“Lucina.” The plea in Callan’s voice hardly registers.

I turn towards Salem. “Tell Selene I’ll be back soon.”

“Lucina!” There’s a scuffle behind me. “Lucina, please. Please, don’t do this.”

I look up at the Hound, praying that he can read it in my eyes. Praying that I won’t need to voice what I’m asking for because I don’t think I have the strength for that.

Salem takes in my face, blue eyes darting between my own, and when he nods, a wave of relief ripples through the dread and desolation that’s taken residence in my hellish heart.

The Hound positions himself behind me, and I can’t bring myself to look at anyone but Pax as I turn, the beginnings of a cerulean mist rising around us.

Hot tears slide down my cold cheeks. “And tell Kimber that she was right.”

We live in fallacies, she’d said. Mistaken beliefs. And gods, was she spot-on. They’re everywhere. All around me. Hidden in plain sight.

The Hound is an evil god with cruel intentions.

Rogues are wicked, and their magic is a plague.

But worst of all, I decide, as the world fades to blue, and wide silver eyes find mine through the smoke.

The Captain will never hurt me—our love is greater than the demons that haunt him.

EPILOGUE

Gemma

You could hear a blade of grass being ripped from the earth with how quiet it is in Pirn.

We’re all standing in the clearing, grouped around the Banyan. Waiting. Hoping. Praying.

I pull air into my lungs, my throat tight, fighting the urge to wring out my hands over and over until they ache. I have them full of magic, ready to heal, soft warmth pulsing beneath my skin.

On my exhale, I look to my right—to the Menders lined up beside me. Then I glance to my left—to the younger witches in my coven, eyes fearfully wide.