I nodded. “I know.”
Something flickered in her eyes, and I thought maybe it was remorse. We both knew what this meant for each of us. War changed people, changed the world, and battle lines had to be drawn. Sometimes they were carved so profoundly that they separated friends and turned them into foes. Had Dianna and I ever truly been friends, this would change it, and we both knew it. Either Vincent and I left together, or we died together. There would be no other choice, and she knew it too.
“I never thanked you for bringing my sister’s body back to me, so thank you,” she said, her words soft as she shook the hair from her face. “But if you side with Vincent,” her tone changed, her eyes bleeding a bright crimson as her fangs descended, “I’ll take the medallion from your corpse.”
She lunged, but I was quicker. My magic whipped out, shoving her into the glass window to my left. The people who had been hanging far back, watching and whispering, screamed, and the true chaos began.
Vincent grabbed my hand, and we took off running. “We need to get out of here. Now,” he said.
I glanced back, but she wasn’t there … yet. “I agree.”
We sped up, cutting through back streets and alleys. We heard screams behind us, and when I looked back, Dianna was closing the distance between us. Her face was set with determination and anger. My magic whipped out, tossing carts and food items at her, trying to stop her. The last cart I aimed at her sent her sailing, and I grinned as Vincent pulled me around a corner and into a dark alley.
He stopped, and I slammed into his back.
“What are you doing?” I demanded.
“We need to split up.”
“Like fuck we do.” I pulled on his arm. “We stay together.”
Vincent shook his head, fear coating the air as he kissed me. He pulled away and tenderly cupped my face. “She wants my head. I can be a distraction, but you and the medallion must flee this city. I don’t know why they want it, and I don’t care, but Nismera cannot get it. You’re strong enough to stop her or break that thing.”
“No,” I said, wrapping my hands around his wrists and tugging. “I can’t do this, any of this, without you.”
“Camilla.” His thumb swept across my cheek. “You are one of the most powerful women in any realm, and you can do anything. You have more power than I think either of us truly realizes.”
“And we both know what that power can do, how isolating it can be. Vincent, I don’t feel alone when I am with you. I can’t be alone again.”
Something painful, brutal, and beautiful flashed across his face as if hearing those words healed some small damaged part Nismera had used, tortured, and nearly destroyed.
He took my lips in a hard, quick kiss, his hands cupping my face. “This isn’t the time or place, but I know I don’t deserve you. I don’t deserve your protection.” Tears filled his eyes, and he nodded before checking behind us again. “I love you. I think I’ve loved you from the moment I saw you in that dress. And because I love you, I can’t let you die for me. You have to leave me.”
His words ricocheted through my chest, making me bleed. They weren’t just words. It was as if my body felt them, as if they crawled across my skin and wove themselves into the very fiber of my being. They became a part of me, changing me forever.
Determination made my magic react, hatred whipping it into a frenzy. He was bound to Nismera with no chance for a life of his own, and the last few weeks had been nothing but us running for our lives, hiding, and trying to keep that damn medallion I’d made out of her reach. I refused to leave him. He’d fought for everyone but himself his entire life, and all the while he struggled against orders he couldn’t say no to. I was done with it. I cared for Dianna. Truly, I did, but if she wanted him dead, then I’d die with him because he loved me. He loved me. He loved me.
“I’m not leaving,” I stated, conviction ringing in my voice.
His eyes softened, and he rose. Wrapping his arms around me, he pulled me to him, sheltering me against his massive body, and I knew without looking we were no longer alone.
“Really, Cami,” Dianna said as she stalked forward, her black leather pants and top covered in splotches of yellow and red fruit. “You could have anyone in the world, and you choose him? A traitorous, backstabbing, conniving fucking rat.”
I stepped in front of him, facing her, green magic limning one hand, then the other. Dianna’s mouth formed a thin line.
“You don’t know him.”
She scoffed. “Oh, but I do. He’s me, and I am him, and we don’t change.”
“You did for Samkiel.”
Her smile was tight as she said, “No, I didn’t. I’d still rip anyone to pieces for him. That’s not change. It’s a redirect.”
She leaped, and my magic shot out like a whip, aiming for her. She ducked around me, claws extended. Vincent summoned an ablaze weapon and brought it down. I don’t know what I expected, but it wasn’t the sword that formed in her hand or the silver gauntlet on her arm. She caught my astonishment and smiled.
“I got some new tricks,” she said, blocking Vincent’s strike and tossing him through the side of the building next to us. I heard him scrambling in the rubble, and Dianna strode toward the sizable hole his body had made in the wall. Determined to give him as much chance to recover as I could, I rushed toward her, my hand raised. Dianna spun, her hands snapping out to grip my wrists. I felt the delicate bones groan.
“Cami, you’re good at magic, but you were always shit at hand-to-hand.” Dianna tsked.
