Pain explodes. Vision swims.
But I don’t look away from her.
“I will come back for you.” The words ring across the square. “I swear it on fire and blood and everything I am. However long it takes. Whatever they do. Iwillcome back.” I don’t know why I need her to know this, simply that I do.
“K—” Her voice breaks. Dragana’s arms wrap around Mara as her knees buckle completely.
They drag me toward the eastern path. Away from the village. Away from her.
I keep my eyes on Mara until the last possible moment. Memorizing her face. The wild, streaked hair. The fierce green eyes.
The woman who kissed me until losing my memory didn’t matter.
The woman who just offered her life for mine.
The last thing I see before they force me around the bend is Mara.
On her knees in the dirt.
Dragana and Andrei still holding her as she reaches for me—one hand extended, fingers grasping at empty air. Trying to bridge the impossible distance between us.
And the devastation on her face carves itself into my memory. Brands itself against the inside of my skull.
This is what breaking feels like.
Not the suppression technology crushing my power.
Not the cuffs biting into my wrists.
This. Leaving her behind. The look on her face. The knowledge that I’m walking away, and she can’t follow.
My dragon roars inside me. Claws at the invisible cage they’ve built. Demands I turn back. Fight. Burn everything to nothing and take what’s mine.
But they’ll kill her if I do.
So I keep walking.
One foot in front of the other.
While something vital tears free inside my chest.
Then trees block the view.
And I’m alone with my captors.
Heading toward whatever hell the Syndicate has prepared.
Chapter 17
Mara
The trees swallow him. One second, K is there—jaw set, eyes locked on mine even as they drag him away. The next, the bend in the path takes him, and he’s gone.
Just…gone.
For a heartbeat, my brain doesn’t process it. Can’t. Won’t.
Then reality crashes down.
