Even after everything, I was never truly battle-hardened. At my core, part of me remained soft—I’d always been that way with strays and lost things. And in this moment, Sebastian looked like both.
“Sebastian?” I called softly.
He startled, his tiger-gold eyes flying open.
“You don’t have to sit on the floor,” I said. “We can both rest on the bed.”
He studied me for a long moment, something unreadable shifting behind his gaze. Then he nodded.
I moved to one side of the narrow bed, leaving space. He rose and sat on the edge, careful to keep distance between us.
For a while, neither of us spoke.
“I’m glad you made it.” Sebastian broke the silence.
“You reached me in time. Thank you.”
“I’ll always come for you,” he said, his voice fierce. “When Ravencrux cannot.”
I didn’t point out that Nero couldn’t have reached me even if he’d known. The Fae realm was barred to gods. Apollo might be the only one who knew of this back door, this forgotten dead zone between worlds.
A cold worry for my mate tightened like a fist beneath my ribs. Had Morrigan reached him? Had the Mortis Bloom—woven with my own healing magic—mended his wounds?
Was he searching for me now?
“I don’t believe Nero killed those other women,” I said, my fingers drumming restlessly on my legs. Nervous energy hummed beneath the fatigue.
Sebastian swallowed. “That depends on how you look at it.”
I knew what he meant. If I had never become entangled with Hades, this cycle of tragedy might never have begun. It was the argument Apollo had always made.
“Even if he wasn’t directly responsible,” Sebastian pressed, “he cannot protect you. Look at how you’ve been hunted. He brings you only pain.” His voice hardened. “You deserve more, and Ravencrux doesn’t deserve you.”
“Everyone is dangerous,” I replied carefully. I didn’t add that the God of Sun had scorched plenty of his own victims across the millennia.
I closed my eyes, exhaustion dragging me under.
It felt like I’d only dozed for a second when the cabin rocked violently.
Sebastian cursed, already on his feet.
Thunderous hooves shook the earth. Blood-curdling yowls rose into the dead air from outside the cabin.
Chapter
Nineteen
Ravencrux
Waking to Her Touch
Poisoned.
The word didn’t capture it. Didn’t come close.
I was dying. Slowly. The curse from Hera’s Whip ate me from the inside out, cell by cell, turning my immortal flesh to rot.
Fever dreams consumed me, twisting reality into endless nightmare. In every one, my mate was in peril. In every ending, I was late. Always seconds too late, arriving only to cradle her lifeless body, to watch the light gutter and die in those beautiful gray eyes I’d loved across countless lifetimes.
