“Tell me, Prophet.”
He closes his eyes, and tears freeze on his cheeks.“You walk to the center.Where the seal is weakest.You offer yourself willingly, and the binding accepts you.Your life force becomes part of the seal, strengthening it, locking the Khorvath away for another thousand years.”
“And I die.”
“Yes.”
Simple.Direct.Final.
I look at Vex, and through the bond I feel everything he’s feeling, rage, terror and love so fierce it physically hurts.He’s already preparing to fight Prophet, Blade, the entire club if necessary, to keep me from walking into that circle.
“There has to be another way,” he says, his voice breaking on the last word.
“There isn’t.”I move toward him, and when my hands frame his face, he flinches.“Vex, listen to me—”
“No.You don’t get to do this.You don’t get to sacrifice yourself like you’re expendable, losing you will destroy me—”
“Five hundred years,” I interrupt softly.“You’ve been alive for five hundred years.You’ll survive losing me.”
“I won’t.”His hands cover mine, grip tight enough to hurt.“Iwon’t, Tessa.Not this.Not you.”
“It’s not your choice.”
The words come out harsher than I intended, but they’re true.This isn’t about what Vex wants or what I want.It’s about what needs to happen to save everyone else.
I spent my whole life running.Running from my father’s crimes, from my mother’s death, from the guilt that ate at me every day.I ran to Alaska thinking I could escape, could start fresh, could hide from everything I’d left behind.
But maybe I wasn’t running away.
Maybe I was runningtowardthis moment.
Toward the place where my bloodline began, where my ancestors made a choice to stand against darkness.Toward the purpose I never knew I had.
Toward the people, Vex, the Kings, this frozen territory worth dying for.
“I love you.”I press my forehead to his, committing every detail to memory.The white of his eyes.The cold of his skin.The desperate way he’s holding onto me.“I love you so much it feels like dying already.But I have to do this.”
“Please.”The word is barely a whisper.“Please don’t ask me to watch you die.”
“I’m not asking.”I kiss him softly trying to fill it with everything I don’t have time to say.“I’m telling you to live.To keep the club safe.To remember me when you’re still walking this earth centuries from now.”
I pull away before my courage fails.
The center of the circle isn’t far, maybe twenty feet, but it feels like miles.Each step is agony, not because of physical pain but because of what I’m leaving behind.Through the bond, I feel Vex’s anguish like it’s my own.Feel him preparing to stop me, to damn the consequences and pull me back.
“Vex.”Blade’s voice cuts through the chaos.“Let her choose.”
“She’s choosing to die!”
“She’s choosing to save us.”Blade meets my eyes across the distance, and I see respect and understanding.“Honor that choice.”
Fifteen feet from the center now.
The Khorvath laughs, the sound making reality shudder.
“Yes, come to me, little Warden.Complete what your ancestors began.”
Ten feet.
