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An eerily familiar dagger sat upon the cushioned surface lining the box. A blade that may as well have been the one Jonah had been keeping in the safe of his bookshop apartment. The one Lukas had tried to murder her with.
Thedagger—but it couldn’t have been.
She sought Jonah in the crowd, unable to stop herself, but he seemed more confused and intrigued by her attention than some mastermind with a plan.
Snapping her gaze forward again, Isla could feel Kai’s eyes on her, and she ran,sprinted,across that patchwork bridge, yelling into the smoky void of their connection, telling him to pay attention. Asking if he’d known or realized. If somehow there were two of these.
“Nearly two millennia ago,” the High Elder continued, his voice heavier. “Our goddesses crafted a blade of stone and stars and sky, of their essence, and used it to offer their blood to create the first of the alphas. Made in its image, blessed by the divine sisters, with this ceremonial dagger, our alpha will offer his blood, his goddess-blessed power to his fated.”
Isla wasn’t sure why, but a deep part of her screamed to stop this. To pause, to let her think. Her mind whirred, trying to scrap together a reason for the similarities.
Kai had the blade in his right hand now, his eyes never leaving hers, and a darkness clouding his that made her wonder if he was fighting a thunderous voice of his own in his head. A voice that may have made him hesitate as he looked down upon the hand that he’d already cut once.A voice that was telling him to run. To fight.
Isla felt Fate shove at her back, hard, digging her claws in as her delicate whisper caressed Isla’s ear,I am not done with you yet.
No.
Kai drew the blade across his flesh, and the scent of his blood made something in Isla’s body twist. Come alive.
The crimson pooled and dripped onto the marble floor from the tip of the dagger as he turned and held it out to her. All the while, an Elder poured the oil over the wood in the basin, then used a match to set it ablaze. The heat, though gentle, wrapped around Isla with grabbing fingers, leeching into her skin to pluck at those ever-present cold spots on her bones. The scent of the smoke carried jasmine that invaded her nose.
With a hand sturdier than she felt inside, Isla reached for the outstretched dagger, her fingers brushing Kai’s as she took hold of the ancient hilt. His touch burned as much as the fire would’ve, and she couldn’t fight her desire to melt with that flame.
Isla’s gaze ran over the dagger, making note of how it compared to the one Jonah had. This blade did not sing to her as the other did. Felt odd in her hand. Too light, too tawdry.
Wait,she thought,scrambling for connections, but Fate pushed again.
There were so many people watching her, watching them. Waiting. Isla breathed, fixating on the pale flesh of her right palm.
She pressed the cool metal to her skin and slid, not feeling pain but adrenaline. She could barely get down a breath, as if something had coiled around her insides. Her wolf even wobbled to its paws, standing at attention. Waiting.
“Bound by destiny, blood, and power, alpha and mate will call upon the deities for a final blessing of their union and an entrustment of their gifts to lead us all.”
Kai held out his hand for her, looking and feeling more ethereal and otherworldly in his crown, in this state, than Isla had seen or sensed him. And when she took his hand…
Nothing had ever felt this intimate.
Not even when they slept together had she felt this stripped down and exposed. Never had she felt so certain that he was everything. That her soul would find his in every universe, over every lifetime. That it had. Over and over and over.
There was a shifting inside her, between them. Everything peeled away to find this final pure essence ofher. Of him. Of why they’d been created. The pooling blood between their palms was molten oar, forging a universe between their clasped hands that they would not allow to fall and break.Could not.
Isla’s body moved on its own accord, Kai’s too, as they extended their arms just over the blaze.
Together, they would do this. Get through this. Through everything.
Their grip on each other’s hands tightened, a crimson rivulet seeping beyond their grasp and kissing the writhing flames.
And then, everything erupted.
CHAPTER11
ISLA
Shouts and gasps of awe, shock, and confusion echoed throughout the room, a backdrop to the roar of fire. Isla had narrowly avoided being singed by the blaze when Kai had shielded her, stepping them back and slipping onto the steps behind them.
An electric current surged through her blood, her entire body pulsing with energy, with…power.
With her breathing ragged and bloodied hand soaking the fabric of Kai’s shirt, Isla peered up from where her face had been buried in his neck, wincing at the bright spots in her vision. Wincing at how loud the world was. In a way she hadn’t experienced in nearly a month, but also in a way that wasmore.Looking at Kai right then felt like looking at a god. Striking and untouchable, the fire a dark reflection on the bends of his crown, the shadows dancing over his face, darkening his eyes gleaming with the flame they looked upon.
