Not before I found a solution that I could present to her alongside the truth.
I’d thought I had more time.
More time to find the answer to breaking the bond. More time to hunt down the right creature with the right knowledge. More time to unravel what had been done—whatIhad done.
The longer I stayed awake in this century, the louder the feral part of me screamed. The part that tore through armies, that refused to kneel even when poisoned, that slaughtered men twice my size with nothing but will and rage.
The part that loved too fiercely to let anyone near what belonged to me.
I wanted to protect her.
Ineededto sever this bond—for her. For both of us.
Because if it remained, it would consume her. The tether would keep dragging her down with me, into the darkness the court had forged. It would make her prey to every creature who wanted leverage against me. Every enemy I’d ever made. Everyold god, every witch, every vampire holding a grudge against my name.
She would be the weapon used to hurt me. She would be the weak point in my armor. She would be the target. And it would destroy her.
But the thought of waking without her pulse echoing in my chest, the thought of rising each night and not feeling the soft tug of her life, the idea of stepping into a world where she did not exist…
It felt like stepping into the sun without protection.
Unthinkable.
Necessary.
I struck the wall this time. Concrete cracked. Dust rained down like ash.
I didn’t know where to begin.
Ambrosia offered nothing but spite. Hammond would rather watch me burn. My brother was somewhere out there—alive, hidden, suffering in ways I had yet to understand. Every creature who might know something was either dead, loyal to the court, or waiting for a price I couldn’t pay.
But I would find a way.
If I had to tear apart every vampire in Boston?—
If I had to drain every ancient creature, interrogate every witch, shake the foundations of every court in this godforsaken century?—
If I had to kill them all to find the answers we needed?—
I would. For her, I would.
Chapter 25
Cristian
Nadia slept.
I did not.
I sat beside her, watching the slow rise and fall of her chest. Her breath had steadied, but it was still too shallow for my liking. Her skin held less color than it should. Every instinct I had—every instinct I wished I did not possess—kept insisting she was slipping through my fingers.
I could not close my eyes. If I did, I feared she would vanish.
Eventually, I forced myself to stand and leave her. I needed to fix this before it grew beyond repair.
Ezra waited for me downstairs, hunched over his machine, fingers flying with frantic precision. The blue glow from his screen cast unsettling shadows on his face.
“We’re running out of time,” he muttered as soon as I entered. His voice was flat, but the panic beneath it pulsed like static. “I’ve tried three reversal patches. None of them stabilized her frequency.”
