Page 176 of A Sea of Fate and Starfire

But if the world was on fire, I’d walk through it to find him.

If I had to burn, I’d burn in his arms.

They pressed in closer, their fingers gripping me, pulling at my hair and dress before floating away. I began to trip over them, crawling on hands and knees. Flames from their bodies licked my skin, heatless and soft to my touch.

And then, finally, one of the drones managed to strike.

They hit the back of my head with sharp bone. A knee, maybe. An elbow. I rocked forward, the sweet scent of island grass thick in my nose and mouth, a crack of pain flaring across my skull. One of them grabbed my leg, dragging me back into their midst. Another raised their foot over my head.

Golden light illuminated the underside of his toes, an arched bridge and a rounded heel, brightening like a growing fire—

Every drone near me erupted, a searing blaze of every color, burning to stardust.

I stared up at it, the twinkling remains of mortals like me, the reflection of their faces crushed into glass and thrown to the sky.

And I understood. Thaan didn’t intend for them to kill me. He was whittling Kye’s reserves, draining Kye from the inside out.

“Hold,” Thaan’s voice said somewhere behind me.

Diara was softly weeping, Hadrian pushing through his glass water beads, fighting to reach her. A deep gash lay across my father’s temple, his eyes open yet unaware. Beside him, Cebrinne watched Thaan with a gaze as murderous as the untamed sea.

I rolled onto my hip, finding my feet and closing the distance between Kye and myself. My arms flung over his neck, my nose buried into the feeling of him, solid and steady and safe. He smelled of the stars, the same inferno I’d sensed when I’d crossed the sea to Perpetuum, burning rain over ancient stone, secrets and smoke and eons upon eons of endless flame.

I might not have cried, if I hadn’t had him.

In fact, I knew I wouldn’t have. I would have lifted my chin, stepping through my hate as though it were a dais, as though everyone was beneath me whether I lived or died. My eyes would have been dry and my breath would have been calm and my heart would have been full of black and vicious poison.

Maybe that’s why we fall in love, whether human or Naiad or a flame plucked from the stars.

Not because love makes us strong. Because it allows us to be soft.

I once might have greeted Death like a challenge, an opponent to be conquered.

But I’d run with Death across the sky, and I knew he was a friend.

Life was made of finite single seconds strung together, each precious from the first to the last. And if these were my last, I’d waste them in his arms, unafraid to fall apart in the safety of his body.

His muscles relaxed the moment we touched, and he sank to his knees. The tendrils of Darkness’s shadows loosened, and Kye’s hands wrapped fully around my back, pulling me in deep. Kye shook softly, trembling against me.

“Take it,” he whispered. “Take his offer.”

“I won’t.” I pulled back to gaze at him, now dim and dark, almost his natural hue. Around us, they pressed in, assassins from every angle. I’d fight them when they came too close, and I knew that eventually, they would. But shield weed had torn away my power, and I knew the fight wouldn’t last long.

“Please.” Tears streaked his own cheeks, tracks of dirt and ash and dust. “I can’t imagine a world without you in it,” he said. “I can’t imagine the sun rising tomorrow while you lay still. I can’t imagine time leaving you here, the days dragging on without you. Please.”

“No, lout.” I swallowed, thick. “If time stops for you, it stops for me. Besides—”

A clawed hand wrapped around my throat. Tore me from his arms. Slammed me into the nearest palm. Talons bit into the sides of my neck. I coughed, struggling for breath, scratching at feathers and scales. A roar shook the wide fan leaves above, but Thaan ignored it. “Selena,” he called. “Come to me. Bring your knife.”

I choked under his grasp, sight flagging. I hoped it was fast. I hoped he killed me first, so that I wouldn’t ignite Nahli, bringing the volcano over all of Leihani. I hoped Death was as kind the second time.

Just beyond me, a voice snarled with rage.

Selena floated through the grass like a paper crane over calm waters, weightlessly drifting through soft blades, her hand sweeping under the waistband of her skirt for the small blade she’d concealed here.

Movement blurred, or perhaps it only seemed to blur. Dark red hair, almost black, the glint of steel. Thaan’s talons spasmed, and then the weight of their hold vanished.

A feathered arm dropped to my feet. Thaan relinquished a step as Kazimir pointed a sword at his chest, reaching for my arm and pulling me into Kye’s side as he stood before us both.