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I let his heat flood through my body. Let my fingers wrap themselves in his hair. It’s what they want to do, after all. They’re aching.

To fight against my love for him would be like waging a war on myself.

But, like war, if it is inevitable, then it must be done.

I shift under him. Gently lift his head off me.

“What is it?” he asks.

My lip quivers.

“Hey,” he says, clinging to me. “It’s okay. I’m here.”

I straighten up. Wipe my eyes, which are dry, but feel raw as worn-down gears.

“Tell me,” he urges.

“We can’t go to our families,” I state. “I don’t think there’s anything left there.”

“Left where?”

“In Vikemy. Maybe even, in Hevalla.”

His brow furrows. He doesn’t get it.

“Bombs fell, Cosmer. They finally fell.”

He’s catching up. His pupils contract.

“No…”

“This was always the plan. Dezeeves and the Queen’s. He’s a traitor for her.”

He messes up his hair with his fingers. His face crumples.

“But, Eric. Our neighbours. Protcher. My mother⁠—”

“They’re gone,” I say. “Old Mother was with me. Right until the bombs hit.” I inhale a breath that seems to rattle my ribcage. “I think it was quick for them. At least.”

His shoulders slump. “No,” he says again, chest heaving. “I can’t believe that. Can’t believe any of this.”

“It’s the truth. It’s over.”

I bring him close to me. His head fills my neck. He’s sobbing hard now. I let him come undone into me.

Around us, the ship is rocking – not its usual rise and fall, but a shaking, swaying, like a storm has come. I can hear, faintly, the sound of cannonballs. The first attacking fleet must have arrived.

Cosmer is oblivious.

My words have broken him.

And I am not even finished yet.

I brace myself for the final blow I will deliver to the man I love.

“I love you, Cosmer. And I would cheat the stars for you. And maybe, one day, I will. But right now, I need to go to The Bridge.”

His arms go slack. He studies me through his tears.