I just blinked. Unable to focus on anything.
TheMalediction Codexhovered beside Aamon, and I felt the power emanating from it. It was palpable and intense and riled my insides as I looked up at him with wild eyes. “I have to thank you, human,” he began, voice amused but dripping with malice. “I’ve been trying to undo that incantation for decades.”
I looked up at him in confusion.Undo?
The book teetered mid-air, the pages billowing as if caught in a torrent of wind. A violent surge of concentrated energy erupted from the Codex, sending a tendril of black energy into Thallor, and him flying backward, before it disintegrated into ash.
“THALLOR.” The scream that erupted from the depthsof my core felt like shards of broken glass as it pulled from my throat. I felt like my soul had been ripped from my body as he crashed into the row of pews behind with a sound so deafening that the following silence made me want to retch. Shards of wood flew into the air, benches splintering on impact.
Thallor lay motionless and buried under the wreckage of strewn wood and cracked stone as I raced toward him. “Thallor,” I bawled.
I don’t understand. This shouldn’t have happened. This shouldn’t have…
I dropped to my knees, ignoring the way my knees cut against the stone floor as I looked down at him. I didn’t know it was physically possible to feel like this. I screamed words that melted together into one as I pulled at Thallor’s limp body. Sticky, black liquid oozed from the back of his head, staining my hand and the floor below him.
“Thall…Thallor,” I sobbed. But his body didn’t move.
“I love you,” I choked out behind the gasps of my own ragged breath. “I love you. I love you. I love you.” I wasn’t sure if he could hear me. But I repeated the words again and again and again as I held onto his lifeless body. I poured every part of me into those words, as if the truth of them could undo everything that had just happened.
I didn’t know it was possible to feel like this–to love someone so intensely that their pain felt like yours. “Please.Please,” I cried, slapping at his face in a futile attempt to bring him back to consciousness. “You said you’d stay.You said you’d stay.I love you, Thallor. I love you. Please don’t leave me.”
I clutched at his body, hoping that it would stop the ache in my chest. I tried to will my tears away so I could memorise the softness of his face and the ever-changing shades of red in his hair. I listened closely to the way his breath faltered as I beggedfor one more second, one more minute, one more hour.I want just one more lifetime with you.
When I heard footsteps approach, I instinctively covered Thallor’s body with mine. “Don’t fucking touch him,” I snarled.
Aamon’s eyes flickered over me with a sick satisfaction. He stepped closer, looming over our bodies with his disgusting, overwhelming presence. Any lingering hope was eviscerated in place of feral anger. I knew I was no match for the demon in front of me. But I didn’t care.
“Don’t come any closer. Just leave him the fuck alone.”
“We can let him decide who he wants to go with when he wakes up.” Aamon shrugged, his tone so far removed from the severity of the situation. “You see, when my brother, the fool that he is, decided to leave all those years ago…you could say that I was bitter about it. One doesn’t simply give up on being a demon, you know.” The chuckle that escaped him was so malevolent. So full of malice.
His gaze never left mine as he savoured the sting of his words. “I had him tethered to the book. Even for a demon, things come at a price. And his freedom, well, the price for that one was steep. Oh, don’t look at me like that—” Throwing caution to the wind, I spat at his feet.
“Call it brotherly love.” He leaned down slowly, but didn’t move any closer. “Anyway, I knew there was a possibility that eventually someone would try to free Thallor from his prison, so I made sure to put a clause in just in case.”
“If that ever happened… If Thallor ever walked free, well, the energy from the spell was meant to erase everything. Everything that had transpired between us. All of it, gone.From his mind, of course.”
I couldn’t fucking breathe.
What?
No.
“You’re lying,” I screamed, lacing my voice with every bit of ice that I could muster. “Why go to all that trouble? Why not wipe his memories to begin with?”
“Stupid, little human. Where is the fun in that?” And then he sighed. “Cry all you want, he won’t recognise you or the bond you shared when he wakes up.”
“LIAR! You sick fucking liar. You sick fuck.”
He just smirked down at me as Thallor began to stir. He pushed himself onto his forearms, pulling himself up from the rubble. I looked at him with wild eyes and tears that streamed down my face, falling with a violent fervour. Through my blurred vision, I was filled with relief at seeing him breathe again. In an instant, I was all over him in a flurry of shock, happiness, and desperation. “I love you. I love you. I’m sorry. I love you.”
The words poured out of me as I held his battered body against mine. For a fleeting moment, it felt like everything was right in the world.
And then he pushed me away. It wasn’t violent, but it was forceful enough to send my body tumbling backward into the hardened floor. I faltered, looking between him and Aamon.
“Thallor—” I whispered, reaching out for him again, confusion and hurt flashing across my face. I saw nothing behind his eyes. No affection. No recognition. Aamon’s laugh echoed through the space as I looked up at him.I don’t understand. I don’t understand.
His gaze flickered between disdain and disgust as he flinched away from my outstretched hand. He sat up properly, groaning and letting his hand trail to the back of his head, which was matted with blackened blood. There is nothing warm or soft behind the eyes that settled back on me.
