I don’t want his form. I don’t want any part of him.
But she does.
She won’t choose me as I am, because the universe never gave her the chance to see me. The bond was slapped between her heart and his before she ever got to decide who she loved.
This spell is the one place his gods weren’t looking.
This isn’t about stealing one night. It’s not about touching her or taking what’s mine.
It’s about giving her the future she was supposed to have.
Once the bond snaps, soul to soul, the universe will correct the mistake it made.
It will tether her to me the way it should have the first time.
If she thinks it’s him when she reaches for me?—
If she cries his name when the bond takes?—
I can live with that.
Because after that moment, it won‘t matter. Names won’t matter.
Bodies won’t matter.
She’ll be mine in the only way that counts: eternally.
The ingredientsI have to collect:
One pair of vampire bat fags
Fire-glass powder
Black thorn sap
Spine oil from a drowned moth
Bloodroot steeped in obsidian water.
Lust-vein nectar from a blooming belladonna stem
Jawbone from a stag
And the vial of Andrik’s essence—stolen from Lumi’s porch.
I despise the thought of becoming him. Of feeling his magic in my veins, his strength in my limbs. The fact that she’ll melt for a shape that isn’t mine.
But I’ll do it, because she deserves a fate that didn’t get stolen from her.
Because I’ve already lost her once. I won’t survive losing her again.If eternity has a price, let this be it.
29
ICE VINE
Lumi-
Everything is so quiet. There’s a haze sitting behind my eyes, like I’m still half-stuck in a dream I can’t wake up from.
