She doesn’t answer. I hope she is happy in the Glowing Lands. “Wait for me, my beloved.” I kiss her cold hand. “Wait for me there. It won’t be long before I’m with you. There’s nothing for me here. No reason to stay. I’ve promised Leander not to slay myself, but I will fade and die as surely as summer turns to fall. There is no light, the food is ash in my mouth, sleep doesn’t rest me, and my thoughts are forever with you.” I lean forward and rest my head on her hard, wooden table.
Closing my eyes for only a moment, I dream. She’s there in a white dress, her wicked smile pulling every string of my heart.
“I love you.” She clasps her hands with mine.
I cup her cheek and kiss her softly, savoring her taste. “I can’t be without you.”
“You won’t have to.” She presses my hand to her heart.
But then her dress isn’t white anymore. It’s red, her blood blooming in crimson streaks.
“Beth.” I catch her as she falls, her eyes closing as her life pours onto my hands. “Beth!” I yell myself awake and sit up.
Her hand slipped from mine, so I take it again.
“You don’t have to yell.” Her voice.
“I’m still in the nightmare.” I shake my head to try and wake myself.
“Did you just call me a nightmare?” Her fingers move against mine.
I jolt to my feet.
She turns her head, her lips pink again, her skin somehow pearlescent. “Hi.”
The bond bursts to life, my soul meeting hers as I take her in my arms. I clutch her tight, feeling her heart beat and her breath stir. My feral, awake for the first time since I lost her, roars in my chest and gallops down the bond to her.
She tries to put her arms around my neck but can’t lift them all the way. I pull her off the table and cradle her to me.
“Tell me this is real.” I kiss her warm skin.
“I think it’s real?” She blinks. “I mean, I was just having a conversation with Chastain who said we’re dead, but now I’m here. So am I dead now? Or was I dead then?”
“She’s alive.” Sabine swings the door open and nods. “I knew it.”
“Knew what?” Beth asks.
“When I told you I had that fake vision of Cenet killing Gareth—”
“What do you mean ‘fake’?” I growl.
Beth gasps. “You said he was going to die. I saw it in the flames.”
She shrugs. “He probably was, but I needed you to do something rash and stupid, so I showed you the deed. It worked. You went. You died.”
“Your plan was tokillme?” Beth gawks as I look around for any sort of weapon.
“Yes.” Sabine claps, the sound like glass slapping glass. “It was a test.”
“You were testing me?” Beth grows more confused with each word. I grow angrier.
“Not you,” she scoffs. “Taylor.”
“Why were you testing—”
“It is the prophecy.” Sabine taps the side of her nose.
“What prophec—you know what? I don’t even care.” Beth leans up and kisses my chin. “Take me to bed.”
