Her scream slices through me like a blade.
Every fiber of my being wills me to move, to act, to protect what’s mine, but my magic freezes me in place, preventing rash action that could result in her untimely death.
The king rips his fangs from Grace’s skin, and my soul spears with her pain. Her eyes fill with sorrow, knowing her choices now.
There are only two—death or vampire.
Grace’s blood drips down his chin, and she fights his grip, only to be greeted by the king’s hiss, red droplets spraying on her face.
Her eyes search mine, yearning and fearful.
A tear slides down my cheek. My jaw is crushing in on itself as my destiny is rewritten before my eyes.
My wife is lost.
My life is lost.
And that hard line I’ve drawn my entire life between human and vampire is blurring before me. Shecan’tdie. She’s too wonderful, she’s too precious to this world. She’s thefuckingHeir!
Shedeservesa future.
“How about a gut wound so you bleed out slow enough to watch your female turn?” the king jeers.
A sword stabs through my belly from behind, and the king’s general snaps away with a cackle before I can do anything about it.
The pain is brutal, but I’m so numb at this point, I savor the way it snaps me to attention and races adrenaline through me anew. “Curse you,” I spit at the king, gripping my stomach.
“I’ll leave you to your goodbyes. It’s been so fun this time around,” the king says and shoves Grace toward me before snapping into nothingness.
“Get into the daylight!” I yell to my Hunters as Grace stumbles, clutching her neck with wild eyes.
Disbelief dances between Grace and me as Rhett tries to revive Sam.
“He’s gone, Rhett,” I tell him, my gut burning and my soul pining for Sam’s magic.
“Fuck!” Rhett screams, shaking Sam’s shoulders again like he might wake up. “We were supposed to be stationmatesuntil our beards were gray,” he cries as Grace kneels beside him and brushes the hair from her brother’s eyes.
“Get him outside with us,” I say as Riot hoists my arm over his shoulder and Hunters kill the remaining vampires with a death wish.
Rhett lifts Sam onto his back, and we race for the castle doors, Grace beside us.
We sprint into the moment before sunrise, when the horizon still holds a faint light. I sense my Hunters filtering out of the castle, almost safe in the comfort of streaming sunshine, their magic calling to mine in a mournful lullaby.
Uncle Brachett barrels ahead, Master Hull on his back. I have no son, so my Captainhood will fall to my closest relative, Brachett.
Riot lowers me to the ground, snow crunching underneath me, and keeps pressure on my gushing wound. My magic wraps around my physical agony, softening the severity as Grace plasters herself to my side.
I cradle her face as she tries to promise me, “I won’t leave you.”
The love I have for her burns so painfully I can barely see straight. “You will. You need to leave before the sun takes you.”
She shakes her head at me, eyes pleading. “No, Kade. Not a chance in hell.”
I chuckle through gurgling blood. “You’re already in hell, my love.”
Her cries shudder into delirious laughter before misery contorts her face again. “It can’t be over. We need more time. I need more time with you,” she sobs.
I smile at the love of my life, the woman I can’t breathe without. “I know. Me too, Gracie.”
