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My peripherals edge with white. No no no no no. Not now.

I flutter my lashes, hoping to stave off the vision. It doesn’t help. The white spreads like frost across my sight until I’m sucked in completely.

Quill’s gaze is on me. Entirely distracted as Mihal closes in. His focus snaps back at the last moment, dodging a blow to the chest. They’re circling one another. Mihal’s eyes shimmer with bloodlust; his fangs glint with the promise of death. A spear of blood juts toward Quill, slicing his arm. Once again, his eyes dart to me. His attention is too divided between Mihal and me, and⁠—

Quill swings. Misses. Mihal feints left and lunges.

Spears fly out in a burst, and Quill…

Quill’s not fast enough.

They tear through his chest, shredding clothes and skin and⁠—

He falls to his knees, blood spears pinning him in place. His gaze snaps to mine as Mihal pounces on him. I scramble toward him, but Vivvy strikes me from behind. Her foot digs into my back as I scream for Quill. Grabbing a fistful of hair, she wrenches my head up and forces me to watch as Mihal looms over my mate.

No no no no no no no.

I thrash against Vivvy’s iron grip, unable to break free. Unable to do anything but watch as Mihal pulls a wooden stake from beneath his shirtsleeve. “I made this from Catalin’s casket.” He tosses it into the air and catches it. “I even carved her initials into it right here.”

Quill struggles against the blood spears. “She wanted to leave you, Mihal. She feared you.”

He laughs mirthlessly. “All will fear me by the time I’m done.”

He plunges the stake into Quill’s chest. I watch in horror as his beautiful face desiccates.

A final goodbye drifts into my mind.

I’ll find you again in the next life, love.

Chapter 42

QUILL

Rory’s kneeling on the ground, a jagged slash across her collar. Blood weeps from the wound like tears as her eyes glow. Bright, eerie white. A vision. It’s a second that stretches on far too long but one that not even Vivvy or Mihal seem to notice.

“NO!” Rory screams. Her throat is working hard as she tries and fails to stop the worry-bright sheen from overtaking her eyes as her honeyed gaze snaps back to the present. “No.”

She rises on shaky legs, rolling her shoulders back as Vivvy snarls at her.

Without sparing me another glance, she says, Don’t you dare spend another second worrying about me. Focus on Mihal. When you swing at him, he’s going to feint to the left and unleash an onslaught of spears. Stop him before he does.

Mihal lunges for me, and I dodge him, sending a myriad of illusions at him. He cuts through them with ease, his attention fixated on me. He’s on me a beat later. Grappling, I drive my knee into his gut.

He laughs as he shoves me away. “Come on, Quill. You can do better than this.”

From my peripheral, I see Rory and Vivian circling one another.

Mihal uses his dagger to slice his hand in two deep slashes. Blood drips into several deadly, sharp spears. He flings them at me, but I spin out of the way. They shatter against the stone floor one by one.

His grin is manic as he prowls toward me.

Is now the moment Rory saw? Where I made a fatal mistake that shook her to her core?

Where I lost and condemned us both?

He lunges for me, I swing.

He feints left, precisely as Rory claimed, and⁠—