My hands lifted, palms trembling from the force rising inside me.
The Veilstrider thrashed in pain, pulling against my hold. But I pulled harder. The blood tore free from its body, seeping through its dark grey skin in a spiralling torrent. Its body shrivelled instantly, collapsing like a decaying corpse. Its chest caved inwards, and its body disintegrated into the ground. Blue blood spiralled upward in a glittering arc, suspended in the air. My arms shook under the weight. Its lifeblood trembled in the air like waves in the ocean, flowing and ebbing like the tide.
The Commander walked towards me, blue gore splattering his bare chest.
His jaw had slackened, eyes fixed on me as though the world beyond my song no longer existed. As if he couldn’t look away. Something seemed off.
I dropped the blood, and it collapsed in a heavy crash, splattered over the cobblestone as my song died in my throat.
He stilled, blinking a few times as if waking from a strange dream.
“Commander?” I asked, taking slow steps towards him. Was he hurt?
Something dark crossed his face as I stood in front of him. A wave of dizziness curled through my vision, dark spots dancing in the streetlights but I wasn’t burned out, not entirely.
“Are you okay?” I asked him as he blinked down at me.
“Lyra—” his voice cracked and I lifted my hand slowly. My fingers weakly brushed his jawline, warm and grounding beneath my touch.
“You used too much power,” he chastised, voice hoarse with something deeper than worry. “You?—”
I didn’t let him finish. Reaching up, I brought my lips to his, desperately kissing him as if he was the very air I needed to live.
His mouth answered mine with a low, broken groan that shot heat through my entire body. My skin tingled against his want, sinking into my veins and feeding my power.
His hands slid to my waist, pulling me against him in a movement so instinctive, it tore a soft gasp from my lips. The kiss deepened, hard and consuming.
“What have you done to me?” he murmured against my lips and cradled the back of my neck with a shaking hand. I reached up, brushing my thumb along his cheekbone. He leant into it like he was starving for my touch.
“The same thing you have done to me,” I whispered.
I swallowed hard as the truth burned through me like a fire I had no intention of extinguishing. “Before you, I only knew pain,” I breathed, placing my hand on his chest.
His eyes snapped open, dark and endless as his fingers tightened at my waist.
“You brought me back to life and Irefuseto let your darkness consume you.”
He opened his mouth to speak, but I held up my hand to silence him.
“We have monsters to hunt,” I stood on my tiptoes and pulled him into one last, soft kiss. “And a god to kill.”
His eyes flared, at the mention of the fallen Sun God.
“You are fucking perfect,” he whispered, voice fierce.
The word sank into me, threatening to tear open old wounds.Perfectwas all I was ever meant to be.
I hatedperfect—until it came from him. Someone who saw every jagged piece of me and still held on despite the risk of getting cut.
The mid-morning sunshone through the wall-to-ceiling windows in beams of pale gold, making last night’s horrors seem far away.
It wasn’t though, the Commander was arranging burials and helping the grief-stricken families the dead had left behind.
I may have saved the little boy, Leo, but I couldn’t save the fifteen other Fae who succumbed to the Veilstrider’s fear.
The tea’s floral steam washed over me, and I inhaled deeply before taking another sip. Cerilla sat across from me in the green plush chairs of our bedchamber.
“Thank you for the tea.” I smiled at her. I knew she didn’t think I was making the right decision by marrying her brother. But for some reason, I craved her approval. I had never had female figures in my life, and Cerilla was someone I wanted to like me.
