The words carved through me like a blade between the ribs. Not just wanted—needed. She was the piece of me I hadn't known was missing. The key that had unlocked memories I'd buried for years. The reason my cold, hollow chest had started to feel something again.
I'd been lost for so long. Wandering through endless years, going through the motions, pretending to be alive when I was just... existing.
Then she'd stumbled into my world. Stubborn. Fierce. Terrified of her own power but brave enough to use it anyway.
And now she was slipping away from me.
I looked down at her face—too pale, too still—and something cracked open inside me. Something raw and desperate and terrifying.
She wanted to belong. She'd spent her whole life searching for a place, a family, a home.
She belonged to me. And I belonged to her.
"Alice." I brushed her hair from her cheek. "Come back to me. You'remine."
I cupped her face in my trembling hands and pressed my lips to hers. They were cold. Stiff. Nothing like the warm, soft mouth that had kissed me back in the armory.
I didn't care.
I kissed her like I could pour my own life into her. Like I could drag her back from whatever dark place she'd gone. Like losing her wasn't an option I was willing to accept.
Come back. Please. I can't do this without you.
Nothing happened.
Her lips didn't move. Her breath grew shallower—each one fainter than the last, like she was drifting further away with every passing second.
I grabbed her shoulders, shaking. “Alice, don’t you fucking leave me. I need you. I need you.”
Was it the queen's magic? That dark, twisted power still clawing at her from the inside?
Damn you, Alanna. Damn you to hell.
My eyes burned. Pressure built behind them, hot and unfamiliar. I blinked hard, my jaw clenching.
What the fuck was happening to me? I never cried. Never. Not in years. Not when I'd lost everything. Not when I'd forgotten my own parents.
But this woman—this impossible, stubborn, beautiful woman—was breaking me apart.
I kissed her again, deeper this time, desperate. Not gentle. Not soft. A demand.
Alice, come back. You did the impossible for the harpy. Now do it for me. Come back to me.
Something fluttered beside us.
I pulled back, my hand going to my blade—but it was the harpy. She'd crawled closer, her wings dragging, her body still weak. Her face was harsh and angular like all harpies, but her eyes...
Her eyes held something I'd never seen in a harpy before.
Gratitude.
She reached down with trembling fingers and plucked a feather from her own wing—a wince of pain crossing her face—and placed it gently on Alice's chest. A gift. An offering.
Alice's eyes fluttered open.
My heart stopped. Then slammed back to life. A broken laugh tore out of me, part relief, part disbelief.
“There you are,” I whispered.
