And Reyla sobbed, shouted, and sprinted toward me like I was the last thing in the world that mattered.
The beast roared. She roared louder.
She fought for me, like I was worth everything to her. Standing over me, she slashed, struck, and screamed until the attacking borgons fell. And when she dropped beside me, her hands found the wound. Magic sparked from her fingers until her arms shook, and her voice shattered under the weight of her terror.
I was barely conscious. The blood loss had taken too much. But I remembered one thing, telling her I loved her. The curse had never let me speak the words. That’s when I knew I was dying, because nothing was holding me back.
She screamed for me to stay. Shouted that she loved Merrick. Lorant. All of me.
She gave all she had. Her magic. Her body. Her soul. Because to her, love had to be enough to save me, or else it meant nothing at all.
It was so clear to me now. She didn’t only love deeply. She measured that love by whether it could stop a monster. Reverse a curse. Stitch a life back together with her bare hands.
And if I died, she wouldn’t only lose me. She’d believe she failed, that her love hadn’t been strong enough to save me.
When the image faded, I laid my palm on my side, over the same place where I’d been wounded. An ache bloomed again, from knowing the truth.
Reyla never loved lightly, but she never believed that loving was enough on its own.
She was the fierce one.
The soft one.
Both.
And she still didn’t know that her love had already saved me. Long before the battle. Long before the blood.
She’d saved me the first time she chose all of me.
Another shard trembled nearby, this one glowing green gold. Calling for me to pick it up and take on another bite of her pain.
This time, I found her inside the labyrinth. Sealed inside, the walls closing in. No magic. Only tiny blades for defense. I’d hidden things then. My exhaustion, the rot of my insecurities under my skin. I’d thought I was helping her by keeping it all to myself.
She watched me. All the time. With so much love it made my heart bleed.
Why hadn’t I seen that she wore a mask of strength to help me? I could’ve held her, told her that what she was then and now would always be enough.
“We were both pretending to be stronger than we are. Both of us carrying burdens we thought would break the other person if we shared them.”
I stared at the shard that had shown me our shared deception. “You watched me with so much love, and I was too blind to see you were drowning too.” My chest tightened with the realization. “All this time, you’ve needed me to be honest about my weakness so you could stop pretending to be invincible as well.”
The glass crunched beneath my boots as I turned away from the memory. “We could’ve held each other up instead of carrying it all alone.”
Another shard rose in front of me, and I cupped it in my hands.
In this one, she sat alone on the tower roof, her face bowed, her arms wrapped around her bent knees, whispering. “I'm not strong enough for this. He’s slowly dying, and I can’t hold it back.” Her voice splintered. “I'll fail him, just like I’ve failed everyone else.”
She sobbed, curling tighter, still holding the weight of us both on her back.
“No, Reyla. Please. All those nights you sat alone, thinking you weren't enough.” Her broken words echoed in my ears. “While I slept, you carried my dying body and your breaking heart.”
My hands dropped to my thighs. “You measured your worth by whether you could save me, and I never told you—” I squeezed my eyes shut before opening them again. “I never told you that loving me was all I’ll truly ever need. You don't have to be strong enough to stop death, Wildfire. You only have to be brave enough to love me while we're both still breathing.”
We hadn’t lost. No matter what happened, we’d already won.
The sky heaved overhead, lavender clouds churning through the red, until a single beam of golden light shot through, striking a mirrored shard at the heart of it all.
The final piece?
