It had worked. I had broken the siren’s kiss.
Darkness crept in, and the world around me faded. But I felt no fear. Only relief.
I didn’t hurt him. I didn’t kill the man I loved.
And as the last of my strength ebbed away, I let myself go, knowing that, for once, I had chosen my own path.
Even if it was the end.
49
RAFFAELE
The arena was silent now, the crowd stunned into an unnatural stillness as their bloodlust drained into confusion. My knees hit the stone ground. All I could see was her. Vivian. My wife.
The water bindings around my wrists and ankles burned with residual siren magic, tightening with every surge of my emotions. But it didn’t matter. A storm was brewing inside me—raw, unchecked magic rushing to the surface.
“Vivian,” I whispered, the word breaking apart in my throat.
She lay crumpled on the ground, the knife still embedded in her chest, its blue, deadly shimmer muted by the dark blood that seeped around it. Her eyes were closed, her lips slightly parted.
Rage and grief twisted inside me, emotions I couldn’t contain. My magic surged to the surface, raw and untamed, shattering the water bindings that had held me captive. The chains dissolved into mist, and I collapsed forward, catching myself on my hands as the strength of my power coursed through me, unrestrained for the first time in weeks.
The siren’s kiss was broken.
The realization hit me like a hammer, the absence of its oppressive weight both freeing and sickening. It was gone because Vivian had severed it.
She had sacrificed herself to keep me safe, to break the compulsion Izo imprisoned her mind with. And in doing so, Izo’s kiss had died with her.
I scrambled to her side, my hands trembling as I reached out to her. “Vivian,” I whispered, my voice breaking. “Please… please don’t do this.”
Her skin was pale, her chest still. I pressed my hands against her, my magic pouring out of me in a desperate attempt to bring her back.
“Come on,” I begged, tears streaking down my face and dripping onto her lifeless body. “You don’t get to do this, Vivian. You don’t get to leave me.”
But her heart was silent. Her body was still.
“Fuck!” I slammed my fist against the ground, my magic lashing against the arena. The blue dome Izo had erected over the crowd quaked, the magic straining under the force of my power.
Izo summoned his guards. I turned and sent my shadows to unbind my friends. Camilla and Dorian immediately shifted. Luca’s shadows lashed out at the oncoming guards, while Vincenzo stood at the ready.
I leaned over Vivian, my forehead pressing against hers as sobs racked my body. “I need you,” I whispered, the words a broken plea. “I can’t do this without you. Please come back to me.”
The bond. I could still feel it, like a tether stretched to its limit but not yet severed. How could that be? She was gone—her heart wasn’t beating. And yet…
I stilled, my ear pressed against her chest, desperate to hear something, anything.
And then it came.
The faintest of beats.
I froze. It came again, slightly stronger this time. And then another.
“Vivian,” I gasped, lifting my head to look at her face. “Vivian, stay with me.”
The bond within me pulsed, surging with warmth that I hadn’t felt in days. It was as if her very soul was reaching for mine, holding on by the thinnest of threads.
“She’s alive,” I whispered in disbelief.
