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I could feel it bonding to the catalyst in my blood. Not like elixir, but different. A calming strength. We hadn’t fully tested it yet, so I didn’t know what to expect. Would it make him mortal again? If so, I’d be stealing his immortality. Even if he didn’t die today, he would eventually—I was ensuring his death. But it wouldn’t be today, and that was enough for me. I hated that I couldn’t ask him for his permission, for such a weighty decision. But I had to do it, I couldn’t just let him die. Anything else, anything else I could handle. But losing Damien, too, after we’d come so far.
Part of me knew that if I turned him human… the revolution was over. The elite would never accept a human prince on the throne, and I’d have no position of power beside him. All those promises I’d made, I’d have no way to fulfill. The people counting on me, they’d be let down. But none of it mattered.
I gave myself to him before I knew what I was doing, simply walking into his grasp and letting him pull me into a binding embrace. He was rough at first, but when I didn’t resist he settled around me, nursing quietly like a bottle. I felt blood dripping down my neck as his fangs clenched deeper, digging for a vein. A small flow of venom from his bite kept me together even as he twisted my neck painfully to the side, but it wasn’t enough. I needed more, or he’d consume me.
“I’m sorry about this,” I said, with tears dripping down my cheek. I stabbed him as he fed on me. A small prick on his collarbone. He flinched and scowled at me, but then went back to his desperate feeding.
I sat on his lap, feeling light-headed, then lowered my mouth to his chest, sucking as much elixir as I could, more than I needed. If it was anything like turning humans, I had to drain him, before he could be reborn.
My bracelet buzzed an alarm, but I was beyond caution. His immortality was slipping away from him, and into me. I let it drip down my chin, slurping it off my fingers. When I felt so dizzy the world spun, I started spitting it to the side before going back for more between breaths.
I held my breath as we were engulfed in light. Flames flickered across his skin and I threw myself against him, smothering the flames and trying to block the light with my body.
The sun fell like a thousand arrows, and my arms wrapped tightly around him, holding him still as light flooded into the cavern. The moths filled the air like a black cloud, disturbed by the vibration of my potent anxiety, until their whispering wings grew into a soft murmur. They responded to me when I noticed them. They were my silent scream, the fluttering of their wings becoming a hissing roar, a pulsing vibration. Expanding and contracting like a black, velvet heart. I glanced above us, glaring at the sun, willing it to move faster. As I did, the moths found the exit and erupted into the sky. Far away I could hear screams and the sound of fighting. My allies needed help, but so did I.
I caught them with my will, as the elixir burned in my veins, the last desperate rush of Damien’s immortality before he went still beneath me. I forced them into a shape, a symbol. A bow and arrow. I held it for a few moments, hoping someone would notice.
It seemed like forever, but finally Damien stopped thrashing and the light passed. It was gradual at first, and then dramatic—plunging the cave back into darkness. Damien seemed to have grown weaker, and hung limp across the chains. He convulsed and whimpered beneath me. His chest and his arms were red and blistered, in some parts his flesh crisp and blackened. I kissed his cheek, holding him to my breast.
His body was warm, warmer than I’d ever felt it, but he was shivering, and sweat clung to his brow.
“Please, Damien,” I stroked his cheek lightly. “Come back to me. I can’t do this without you.” His eyes flickered, focusing on my face in the darkness. For just a moment, he seemed to find himself and recognize me.
“You are the only one who can,” he murmured. Then he slumped sideways against the post, going limp, his pale body slick with sweat in my arms.
I waited another minute, before gently extricating myself from Damien. I didn’t know what he was anymore, what I’d done to him. But for the moment, he was alive, and that was enough.
I stood up shakily and checked myself, rolling my neck and shoulders. Without the elixir I’d taken from Damien, I wouldn’t have survived. It pulsed through my body, crackling like electricity. I felt unbound, somehow, as if I existed beyond the limits of my flesh and skin.
I had to get out of here, somehow. But there was one thing I needed to do first. My senses were so heightened, I could feel the other presence in the cave, soft and whimpering in the shadows. I found Loralie chewing on the wooden stake I’d shot Nigel with, like a dog with a bone.
Her pale, rosy cheeks. The angry scars where her eyes should have been. They shouldn’t have healed so well. Nigel must have filled her with elixir. No wonder she was hungry for it.
She flinched when I stepped closer, lifting her face towards me.
“Emily?” she said. “It’s you, isn’t it? I heard your voice.”
“Yes, Lor. It’s me.”
“I knew you’d come back for us. But then, you didn’t.”
“I tried. I swear. What happened to you, after—?”
“The king took our blood, but that was all. Until a few days ago. Or yesterday maybe, it’s hard to keep track. They’d forgotten to feed us. An elite came and let us out, but then… he attacked me. Jamie tried to protect me. He got hurt.”
“I’m so sorry,” I said, pulling her closer and wrapping my arms around her. She stiffened at first, wrinkling her nose.
“You smell different,” she said. “Was it true, what he said, about us not being sisters?”
“You’re the only sister I have,” I said. “It’s you and me forever.” I held her face in my palms, studying her. Her soft lips and pale hair. The scars crossing her face, the grotesque purple sockets. I rubbed her cheek with my finger. Wet. Could she even cry anymore? Or were they mine? I felt wetness on my cheek and salt on my tongue, but it felt different. I felt everything.
“Listen, I have to go. This isn’t over yet. Nigel still has Jamie, and I have to save him, there’s not much time. Will you be okay here on your own?”
“But I’m not alone,” she said, turning her face towards Damien and sniffing the air. “Am I?”
“He’s locked up, but… he can’t hurt you now. And there’s a key, if he wakes up, if he talks to you, you can help him. But be careful, and don’t trust anyone else.”
“Why can’t I come with you?”
