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“Red-gold,” he says, as if the gold part makes it any better. “They’ve been that color since the night I turned.”

“So I’ve never seen your real eyes.”

“You have.” His fingers find mine, electricity crackling where our skin meets. “Gray is the color I was born with. These are my eyes, Jade. The red’s just what the transformation did to them.”

My throat tightens, because I want that to be true so badly it scares me. I want the gray to be the real thing and the red to be the lie, and not the other way around.

“And if I ever see the red?” I ask.

“If you see the red,” he says slowly, each word deliberate in the way Logan gets when he’s saying the truest thing he knows, “it means the token’s been removed. And if the token’s been removed…” He stops, pressing his fingers harder against the chain at his neck. “You don’t want to see the red, Jade.”

I hold his hand tighter. “Then let’s make sure no one takes it off.”

Every muscle in his body goes tight, and the air pressure around us drops so fast my ears pop.

“There’s one more thing,” he says, and it’s careful and measured, like he’s already decided how much to tell me and is sticking to the script. “Without Callie, I don’t have a blood source.”

The words land in my gut, and I sit up straight, replaying what he said a few more times.

He doesn’t have a blood source.

He needs a blood source.

Which means…

“You want to drink my blood,” I say, and it’s not a question. It’s me realizing this is real, and that Logan drinks blood, and as hard as I try picturing it, I can’t.

He gives me a small smile, but it doesn’t hold. “It’s not that I want to. It’s that I need to. Revenants need supernatural blood to reach our full strength, and I need my full strength for whatever’s coming next.”

Electricity crackles across my fingers, silver threads jumping in the space between us. “What happens to me if I do this?” I ask. “Will it change me?”

“It won’t make you a Revenant. It won’t change who or what you are. But it creates a bond.” He looks down at his hands, and black fire flickers on his fingertips. “You’ll feel connected to me beyond what you feel now.”

I stare at him, sitting here on the ruined deck with black fire dying at his fingertips, and he looks so lost that I want to wrap my arms around him and never let go.

“I found out you’re a Revenant this morning,” I say slowly, the word Revenant feeling like poison on my tongue. “I watched you choke my best friend with air magic. I watched a demigod put a divine blade through your chest, and you healed in seconds. I found out that the eyes I’ve been looking into for months aren’t yours at all. Not really. Not anymore.”

I don’t know why I keep coming back to the eye thing. All I know is that electricity is climbing up my arms, and I can’t tell if it’s reacting to the anger or the love or the fear, because all three are so tangled together that I can’t separate them anymore.

“But despite all of it, I’m still sitting here,” I continue. “I’m still holding your hand. I’m still bringing you to Pine Valley with me, because I hate the idea of going anywhere without you. So no, I don’t think a blood bond is going to make much of a difference. Because blood bond or not, I’m yours, and I’ll always be yours.”

The fire at his fingertips extinguishes, and the wind’s so still that the sails hang slack.

“You need this,” I say, quieter now. “So, I’m going to give it to you.”

He reaches for me, and when his fingers close around mine, electricity jumps between us, and his grip tightens.

“Not here.” His gaze sweeps the deck. “Below.”

My legs are shaky when I stand, and Logan’s hand finds the small of my back, steadying me as we make our way down the hatch into the tiny cabin we’ve been sharing since we left Blaze Academy.

Even though the room is the same as last night, it feels different with the ship empty. There’s no Evie in the next room, no Kieran prowling the deck with his hand on his sword, and no Callie steering the way with her waxy skin and dark circles, pretending she wasn’t watching every time Logan looked at me.

It’s just us.

Logan shuts the door, and the latch clicks, the sound loud in the quiet.

“Have you done this before?” I ask, immediately wanting to smack myself. “I mean, have you fed from someone who isn’t Callie?”