I can’t believe this is happening right now.
Suddenly, Dalia pulls back and gasps. My eyes widen as a moment later, she goes completely lax in my arms.
“No. No. No. No.” I slowly lower her to the ground, Titan and Steel dropping to their knees beside us. “Dalia? Wake up, Dalia!”
I lift my hands to her neck as a tear slips down my cheek, but I already know what I’m going to find.
Nothing.
I findnothing.
“We killed our mate.” My head shoots up. “She was our mate. I felt it. You felt it, didn’t you? She was ours, and we killed her.”
At this point, tears are streaming down my cheeks, and I know this is the worst pain I’ll ever feel in my life.
Not just because she was meant to be mine—ours.
Not just because we’re the reason she’s dead.
But because we never had a chance to really know her. We knew her for mere hours, and that will never be enough.
“She was fine,” Steel says softly, his eyes on Dalia’s still form. “She kissed you, and she was fine. She was fine.”
“Clearly not,” Titan growls. “We knew better, and we still touched her. This is on us.”
Devastation claws at me as rage rises.
I throw my head back and bellow, letting out as much of my sorrow and my anger as I can.
“What’s wrong?” Dragon stumbles into the kitchen without a shirt on, his pants undone. Goat is right behind him, looking just as disheveled as his lover.
Both of their eyes fall to Dalia on the floor, her eyes open and unblinking.
Goat shakes his head. “But how?”
The front door flies open, startling all of us, but I can’t even be bothered to stand.
Let whoever is storming in here kill us—if they even can. I don’t know ifreiterscan be killed, but I’ll be happy to be a guinea pig in this situation.
Morrigan and Phoebe freeze in the doorway, their eyes going straight to Dalia.
“What happened?” Morrigan demands as she kneels down opposite me, nudging Steel out of the way, while Phoebe kneels at her head.
I open my mouth to tell them what happened, but a sob is the only thing that escapes me.
Phoebe presses her hand against both sides of Dalia’s head, while Morrigan lays hers over Dalia’s chest and belly.
“She said she was our mate,” Steel says, his voice full of disbelief. When I lift my eyes to meet his gaze, I find silent tears coursing down his cheeks. “She kissed Blaze, and we all freaked out. Areiter’stouch is deadly to the living, but she was fine. She said she didn’t feel anything. So we all kissed her.”
“We killed our mate.” Titan’s voice is devoid of emotion as he stares out the kitchen window, having stood to allow her sisters to fall to her side.
Phoebe snorts. “You’re all idiots, including Dalia.”
I jerk back. “What the hell did you just say?”
Except she doesn’t respond because her focus is on her sister.
It’s only then I realize they’re not freaking out like we are.
