Mingxi’s foxfire exploded along the ward-lines. “Poppy—run!”
But she didn’t run. She pulled her magic free, and it began pulsating like a living thing as the revenants reached the ward boundary and tore through it.
The next moments were chaos: Mingxi slashing one revenant in half with a burst of foxfire, Poppy driving moonlight through another’s ribcage.
The third whispered in Lysandra’s voice, “Poppy… help…”
Poppy nearly faltered, but Mingxi caught her waist and yanked her back just before claws struck, moonlight sizzling against Void, foxfire roaring in defense, the barrier collapsing entirely.
The third revenant turned its full focus on Poppy, jaws cracking wide. “Let me innnn—”
Poppy’s magic surged in a panicked burst. She grabbed the mark at her ribs, pulling moonlight inward and then outward. A shockwave of pure light slammed through the clearing.
The third revenant shrieked as its skull split apart under Mingxi’s blade. Silence dropped like a curtain. Poppy crashed to her knees, shaking hard. Mingxi was beside her in an instant.
“Are you hurt?”
“No, no, but—” She swallowed. “It used her voice. Mingxi… it’s getting stronger. Smarter. It wants me for real. If the moonwell doesn’t work—”
His expression cracked. Not his calm. Not his discipline. Something deeper.
“Poppy,” he whispered, cupping her face with trembling control. “You cannot think like that.”
“But the message—”
“The message explains why we cannot delay.” His forehead pressed to hers, breath ragged. “It explains why I cannot lose you to this. I will not let it jump into you. I will drag the Grimoire into the well myself if I must.”
Her chest tightened painfully. “Mingxi,” she breathed. “What if you fail? What if I fail? What if tomorrow I’m not me anymore?”
His fingers curled against her skin. “Then tonight,” he said hoarsely, “you must be.”
The words stole her breath.
“This might be our last night where nothing has been taken from you,” he murmured. “Where you are whole. Where you are still… Poppy. Before the entity tries again. Before the moonwell tests you. Before anything else threatens to tear you from me.”
Her pulse thundered.
“And what about you?” she whispered. “What if tomorrow I’m the one watching you change… or fall… or…”
His eyes flinched with a pain she’d never seen in him.
“That is why,” he said quietly, “I do not want to spend tonight pretending I am only your Guardian. Or that you are only my charge. Or that fear is not ripping both of us apart.”
Her breath caught. Her heart skittered.
He looked devastated and steady at once.
“I am afraid of losing you,” he said, voice breaking like something old inside him cracked. “And I do not want my last night with you to be spent wishing I had reached for you while I still could.”
Poppy stared at him. At the blood on his robe. At the ash on his cheek. At the foxfire still flickering along his fingers like they were too full of emotion to stay dim.
Slowly—terrified, certain—she lifted her hand and placed it over his heart. It raced under her palm.
“Mingxi,” she whispered, “I don’t want to lose this either.”
He inhaled sharply. “Then tell me what you want,” he said, voice rough, reverent. “Tell me, and I am yours.”
Her throat closed. Her eyes burned.
