"Dante—"
He backed her against the wall. Framed her face with his hands, gentle in a way that contradicted everything he was.
"I need you focused when we hit that fortress." Rough. Almost breaking. "Not drowning. Not paralyzed. And you won't get there by running from this."
"Too late." Her hands fisted in his shirt. "I'm already drowning. I can't stop thinking about all the ways this goes wrong. Losing you. You losing me. Both of us dying and Caelum winning anyway." Her breath hitched. "All those souls are going to die because I opened that gateway. Because I walked into his trap like an idiot. They're cleaning up my mess with their lives, Dante."
His shadows wound tight around them both.
"Caelum built this. Not you." His thumbs brushed her cheekbones. "He corrupted the wards. He spent ages planning. You were just the catalyst he manipulated."
"That makes it worse." Her eyes were bright with tears she refused to let fall. "I should have seen it. I should have known. And instead I handed him everything he wanted."
Something cracked open behind his ribs. The same place where fourteen hundred casualties had lodged and wouldn't let go.
He kissed her.
Hard and desperate, edged with the terror of tomorrow. She gasped against his mouth and then kissed him back just as fiercely. Her hands slid into his hair, fisting, pulling him closer like she could crawl inside him and hide.
Shadows wrapped them in darkness until the alcove disappeared. Until the war disappeared. Until nothing existed but her body against his, her hands in his hair, her mouth moving like she was trying to memorize him.
When they broke apart, both breathing hard, he kept her close. Forehead pressed to hers. Shadows holding them in their own private world.
"Promise me something." Barely a whisper.
His hands tightened on her face. Thumbs brushing away tears she probably didn't know were falling. "Anything."
"If it comes down to closing the gateway or saving me..." Her green eyes burned into his. "Close the gateway. Don't let Caelum win because you chose me."
Everything in him rebelled.
"No."
"Dante—"
"No." His grip turned frantic. Shadows lashed out hard enough to crack the stone behind her. "Don't ask me to watch you die and do nothing. Don't ask me to finish the mission like you meant nothing."
"I'm asking you to save the realms." Her hands covered his, holding them against her face. "Even if it costs?—"
"Everything." Darkness solidified around them. Frost crawled across the stone. "It would cost everything. You don't understand what you're asking."
"I do." She held his gaze, unflinching, tears streaming down her face. "That's why you have to promise. If I'm worried you'll sacrifice the world for me, I'll hesitate. I'll look for another way. And Caelum wins."
His shadows writhed.
She was right.
If he fell protecting her and Caelum won, she'd die anyway. Everything would die. The realms would collapse. Reality would fracture.
But choosing the mission over her?—
He closed his eyes.
"The same applies to you." The words scraped out of him likebroken glass. "If I fall, you finish it. Close the gateway. Survive. No heroic sacrifices. You live, Brynn."
"Dante—"
"That's the deal." His thumb traced her cheekbone. "We both come back. Or we finish the mission, and whoever survives carries that weight forever. Knowing they chose duty over the person who mattered most."
