Page 171 of Black Sea

I didn’t have much longer.

I had to act immediately.

However, just before I could bring the blade to my throat, Mornon suddenly took a step back, his face twisted with angry turmoil as he stared at my blood-dripping face. Without wasting even a fraction of a second, I formed a circle of large glass spikes around the base of the sphere to keep him at a distance long enough to finish my task.

Tears mixed with blood as I raised the dagger to my carotid artery. “Forgive me,” I said.

“For what?” he roared furiously. “Because you’d rather kill yourself than be by my side?”

“And you’re willing to watch me die, rather than give up?” I shot back sourly.

Mornon’s attention drifted to Calien’s Crystal, and he clenched his jaw so tightly that a muscle on his cheek fired.

“ Look at me!” I ordered vehemently, and his burning eyes shot to mine again. “Are you ready to face eternity without me? Because that’s what will happen in a few moments. You will not just lose the Crystal forever.” I swallowed hard, grimacing at the metallic taste. At the pain gripping my heart. “You will lose me.”

He subtly reared back as though he’d been slapped and went still. Then his fingers began to flex nervously and his nostrils flared as his breathing sped up and his face crumpled into a mask of hatred.

He was warring with himself.

And I, too, couldn’t help but fight for us one more time.

“Amlach,” I said, my voice thick with pain. “Please give up. Sacrifice your powers and let’s start a new life together, away from everything and everyone.” I looked at him intently, with all the love that was mercilessly tearing me apart. “I will never leave you alone.”

A muscle throbbed just above his upper lip, slightly curled in disgust. He let out a bitter half-laugh. “Still trying to convince me to run away with you?”

Hurt by his mocking tone, I decided to try one last, crazy path. “I saw your future without me,” I declared.

The veins on his face burned more intensely, but he stayed in terrifying silence.

“It won’t be as you picture it,” I continued in a grave manner. “You will no longer care about your plans for conquest and submission. You will live a lonely and desolate existence, knowing that you will never be allowed to join me in Rest.”

His gaze was so sharp it made me feel like he was skinning me alive. “And have you seen our future together, too?” he asked venomously.

It happened all at once.

Like during the fight, Calien’s power of foresight activated again, showing me something that took my breath away.

I saw a little girl with pointy ears peeking through her long, dark blonde hair and golden skin walk down the steps of a wooden house built on the edge of a jungle by the beach, near a freshwater mouth, and run to her father, who had just washed ashore with the boat carrying the day’s catch. The man took her in his arms and set her against his side, his gaze shifting to the elf watching them from the porch, smiling. He grinned mischievously at her. She reached the boat and hoisted the basket full of fish while he, with his free hand, took the bucket with the shellfish.

I saw Amlach and me walk back to the wooden house with our daughter.

As it started, the vision ended suddenly, leaving me so devastated that I felt like my soul had just crumpled up on itself until it turned to powder.

My eyes, brimming with tears as hot as magma, refocused on Mornon. “Yes,” I gasped with a barely visible smile.

His brow furrowed even further. His irises burned dangerously.

The next moment, he stormed into my mind, as painful as a blade suddenly piercing the flesh. I sensed him probing every corner without any regard, moving with the slithery of a serpent among the images stored in my memory.

When he found the vision I had just experienced, I felt like a gasp ran through my whole body. However, as soon as he finished watching it, he quickly moved on, as if it didn’t mean anything to him. Once he realized there was no vision of his future without me, he hastily abandoned my thoughts.

“Ah, Elf . . .” He pinned me with a sharp look. “I’ve almost believed you.”

I closed my eyes, defeated. Finally, with great effort, I accepted that I had reached the end of the line and looked at him with a stern yet exhausted expression. “And I’ve almost believed you would choose me.” The lump in my throat cracked my voice. “That you would choose us.”

Without wasting another moment, I pressed the dagger against the side of my neck.

The skin tore beneath the glass.