“Rhyes,” he said gently, brushing strands of wet hair from her face.
She didn’t stir.
Dominic grasped her by the shoulders, shaking lightly. “Phoenix,” he said with a little more urgency. “Adara, wake up.”
Her chest didn’t move, no steady rise and fall of breathing. No breath that cast clouds in the chill night from her parted lips. Scrambling for her wrist, Dominic pressed two fingers to her skin. It was still.
“No,” he whispered, the world caving beneath his feet, pulling him down with it. A king without her key to claim. A thief without her heart to steal. What was he without her?
“NO!” he repeated, voice rising in panicked hysteria. The world couldn’t collapse beneath him, not with her right there. It couldn’t take her, he wouldn’t let it. He wouldn’t let that weight that barreled into his chest drag either of them down. No, she deserved to be here. She deserved to go home with the Andreilians, who crowded around him and Adara’s body in a circle, their whispered words nothing but muffled sounds to his ears.
He wanted her here with them.With him.
Hands immediately on her chest, Dominic began alternating between compressions and breaths, pumping life back into her heart, breathing air back into her lungs, willing her to stay with him. “Come on, Adara,” he encouraged through gritted teeth. “Wake up!” He shoved his palms against her chest more frantically, begging for that gasp of breath to come from her sensuous lips at any moment.
Come on. Don’t do this to me,he thought. Still, she did not move.
A hand on his shoulder. “Dominic, you can’t—” He shoved whoever it was away.
His motions became more frantic, more forceful as he tried and tried to just make herlive. “Wake up!” he snapped, voice rising in anguish. His hands pumped against her chest. “You will not fight alone, till death and beyond, remember?” he said breathlessly. Dominic’s vision blurred as he breathed into her lips once again, droplets of water splashing onto her face. “You can’t die on me,” he said, muscles straining with the effort of trying to restart her heart.
His motions slowed, arms tiring. His breaths came in strangled sobs as he realized there was nothing more he could do. It was useless.Hewas useless.
The world held still, echoing the lack of life inside both their chests. Yet Dominic still lived, and she did not.
What did he do to deserve this? To be handed this beautiful, fierce girl who made him wish he had a heart if only so it could beat for her. To be condemned to a fate with her, where none of what he felt could be real. To be doomed to an end that left only one of them alive, wondering if all of this was worth it.
He’d done much to deserve this. Hediddeserve this, but he would not accept that.
He would not accept that he’d lost her again. Lost the one who mirrored him in every way. The one who had made promises to him, despite his malicious reputation.
A promise to keep each other alive.
A promise to no longer fight alone.
“Please,” he murmured against her lips as he breathed into them one last time. His chest burned, and he didn’t know if it was from breathing into her lungs through his strangled cries or if it was the last piece of her soul, fiery and courageous, leaving. Icy tears slid down his cheeks. “Please, don’t leave me here to fight alone.”
He begged and begged on his knees for her to come back to him. There were no gods out there to answer his prayers, just this Flamecarrier with the power of one to have him worshipping on his knees.
“Dominic, she’s gone.” Sawyer’s strained voice of reason rang in his ears, but he refused to listen.
Tears streamed down his face, tasting of salt on his tongue. He wrapped his arms around Adara and pulled her close. “No,” he whispered, a broken, desperate plea. “D-don’t leave me here alone.”
The frozen feel of her pallid, wet skin seeped into his bones. The warmth of life—the warmth of the fire in her veins—sputtered out. Sobs racked his body as he brushed hair away from her face, beautiful and enchanting even in death. He kissed her forehead, held her to his chest, and decided he never wanted to let go.
If death wanted her, it could take him with her.
He held onto her, squeezing her flush against him as if it would keep her spirit from drifting away. He’d sell his soul to the God of Death if it meant keeping her safe—if there even was a god to bargain with.
He couldn’t lose her. Not after everything.
Not when he needed her key.
Not when he needed her to tell him the location of the remaining two relics of the Realm Fracturer.
But most importantly, not when he just neededher. Needed her to keep making his cheeks ache with smiles and laughs that hadn’t come from his mouth in what felt like centuries. Needed her to keep looking at him like he wasn’t some monster to be feared. Needed her voice to bring him back from the brink of insanity.
Her voice that he’d never hear again. Hel, he’d already forgotten the precise melody of her ethereal laughter. The exact shade of blue of her flames that matched her eyes.
