Neyu slid her arms between them, resting her palms over his heart.Fear seeped into her voice, though her gaze held steady.“You have to.”
“We’ll run—”
A scoff rose in their minds and Saer winced.He glanced over Neyu’s head at the still and observant entity behind them.Lucifer watched them through Errshek’s eyes.Studying.
Absorbing.
Icicle knives roiled inside his stomach, carving and churning.Wherever they ran, their maker would find them.It would work Its way through eachDaemoenicto get to them.He knew it.Neyu knew it.
Lucifer would ascertain it.
“The others need you,” Neyu urged, drawing his attention back.
“Our maker lies,” Saer whispered, a plea of denial more than an assurance.
Then by all means, test me, my Saerkhanum.
No scenario existed where Lucifer allowed Neyu to live.A cavern of hopelessness yawned wide and all-consuming.
The immeasurable essence of the ocean shined in Neyu’s eyes as it always had, but somehow deeper.“I need you to save them.I need you all to see and experience beyond me—”
“I can’t.”Saer rejected the notion as soon as she uttered it, a sense of disconnect settling between himself and his body.Only emotions remained.
Standing on her toes, Neyu pressed herself close and kissed his cheek, grounding him.She spoke with quiet urgency into his ear, her voice steady despite all.“I won’t accept the unmaking of our kin alongside mine.Iwon’tlet you be alone.Please.”
No, no, no, no.
“You need them,” Neyu whispered against Saer’s neck as though she could read his thoughts.
Please, no.
His voice thinned.“Don’t make me.”
Leaning back to view him, the Second pleaded, “I want it to be you.”Neyu barely breathed the words, and Saer’s umbrage broke as he soaked in the implications.She asked for him to be the one to unmake her—not the fallen angel.
Will you not honor her final request, Saerkhanum?Lucifer’s abrasive and beautiful voice floated into their minds, and Saer flinched.Amused.Their maker soundedamused.
“Ican’t.” The desperate whisper left him so subdued, he barely heard it himself.
“Dearest.”Neyu’s loving touch on his cheekbone coerced Saer’s broken attention back to her.“There’s no other way.”
“We’ll both—”
“For them.”
Saer’s throat clogged.
If he refused, she’d be unmade alongside the rest of theDaemoenica.Could he live with that knowledge?That he’d condemned them?
Or his other choice—unmake Neyu, and only Neyu, himself.Destroyed at his hand, by her request.
From the beginning, he’d been unable to deny her.
“When?”He choked on the question, eyes still locked with Neyu’s.
Now, of course,Lucifer answered.
The pit in his stomach dropped further, grew wider.“Command me by my true name.”His voice shuddered, one last request to remove his will, to save himself.A selfish prayer.
