It was black.
As black as the shadows I commanded.
As the seconds ticked by without it inside of me, waves of weakness began to overtake my body, building and building until my balance swayed. I knew the knife had only pierced a small portion of my flesh, but it felt like my entire chest had been splayed open. Like every part of me was in danger of tumbling out, leaving me entirely hollow and empty.
I’d only thought about getting rid of the fragment of my old enemy; I hadn’t thought about the space it would leave behind.
Clearly, it had tangled more completely with my own life-force than I’d realized.
And without it, I suddenly couldn’tbreathe.
The world tilted sideways.
Lorien caught me as I fell, his grip more ruthless than supportive, forcing me to keep staring at the floating fragment—as if he was waiting for me to explain, to tell him the next part of my plan.
But I didn’t have anything left to tell him.
Nothing left to give.
I only knew that my goals hadn’t changed: I wanted to save my world. My magic. And, more than anything else in that moment, I wanted to save the man standing before me, to somehow heal his scars.
I would give anything to keep you safe.
His words, first. But now, they were mine as well. A shared vow. The only thing tethering me to reality. I had to keep fighting. To keep breathing.
I inhaled as deeply as I could, blinking hard, trying to focus.
As I did, a fracture formed in the center of the heart.
And then itbroke, splitting in two with a sound that echoed like a crack of thunder.
One of the pieces flew outward, slamming into Aleks. He staggered back as it sank into his chest, a strangled sound tearing from his throat. His eyes went wide. The runes on his body flared…but then began to dim.
The second piece of the heart fell toward me, hovering just out of my reach, pulsing with a soft, steady darkness. It was hard to focus on.
Everything was getting harder and harder to focus on.
Lorien’s grip tightened on my shoulders, holding me upright.
I knew the bargain we’d made. Knew I couldn’t go back on it now—if only because I was too weak to stop him from taking what was promised. The very thought of trying to fight him off was agonizing.
Just take it,I thought, my vision darkening at the edges.Please. End this.
A moment later, my back hit the ground. Lorien had released me. Let me fall. He was reaching for the remaining half of the fragment—his outstretched hand was the last thing I saw before I closed my eyes and let the exhaustion claim me.
I drifted in and out of awareness for some time. The crooked black trees wheeled above me every time I opened my eyes.Closer. They seemed to be leaning closer with each blink. I started to see their long branches as fingers, as if the dark hands of Death itself were reaching down to claim me. I welcomed it in like an old friend.
Then came pressure against my chest, firm and deliberate.
I heard myself gasping. Choking. I didn’t actuallyfeelthese things, though, because I was detached from my body, floating somewhere up above…
Until a massive weight settled into the hollow place where the fragment had been. It sank deeper, expanding into the cracks of my broken body until all of the emptiness was gone.
A rush of power overcame me, and I realized what had happened.
The broken heart piece…
Lorien had given it back to me.
