No, it was not fair. No, you cannot leave me. No, I cannot bealone again.
I grabbed onto his fingers and desperately clung to him as my head throbbed in pain. My throat was sore, but my magic still refused to letme speak.
Once again, I stood motionless with a frozen tongue and a shattered heart as my life crumbled before my eyes—powerless to do anything tostop it.
Riyan’s eyes scanned me frantically, taking in every last detail of my face and body. Even though his gaze ate me up like his last meal, his eyes swamwith guilt.
“Go back to the fortress, Serafina,” he said, his satin voice shredding more with every word. “Take care of my mother, try to…try tobe happy…and…”
Riyan reached up and tore the House of Bloodstone pin from his cape. His crimson cape fell from his shoulders onto the snow. He opened up my trembling hand with his finger and slid the pin intomy palm.
“…take charge of the Northern provinces,” Riyan finished. “You don’t need me,you don’t…”
Riyan trailed off as soon as my lip trembled. The cold golden pin bit the center of my palm. I did need him. I needed him not for his strength, or his power, but for his heart. I shook my head as I refused to let him leave me alone in the darkness of theworld again.
Riyan held me even more steadily. “You are the Baron, Serafina, and not because I say you are, but becauseyou arepowerful. And if anyone says otherwise…you havean army.”
Against my own will, I nodded. Tears broke from my eyes and streamed downmy face.
Riyan smiled softly. I trembled as I savored every last second I had with him. My eyes frantically swept down his golden hair, his square jaw, and his strong brow and nose. I quickly memorized every groove of his chest, every muscle in his arms, and every callus of his hands as he held me. I took a deep breath of nectarand wheat.
Riyan’s lips parted. “Ilove you.”
Our golden bond cried in both triumph and agony. Riyan kissed me on the top of my head. He let his lips linger there for a moment and took in adeep breath.
My hands floated up to reach for him, like I had gripped onto Erik’s cape long ago and silently begged him to stay. But just like my eldest brother broke away from me and walked to his doom, sodid Riyan.
I turned around and my desperate eyes followed him as heapproached Ganora.
The words sat on my tongue with wings raised, ready to fly to him, but my throat was still. I had enchanted myself to stay silent, but the words soared through my heart and to my veins, the power of each one holding me down tothe earth.
I loveyou too.
Riyan faced Ganora, their eyes the same level, but he refused to look at anything but me. He gave me a little smile as one last goodbye.
Ganora grabbed Riyan by his jaw with her sharp hands. She leaned closer. Just when I thought she was going to kiss him, a wicked smile crawled acrossher face.
“You are going to be useful,” she said. “Sleep, Bloodstone.”
Ganora opened her mouth. Her breath like a wicked blue frost spiraled out of her throat and into Riyan’s mouth and nose. The light went out in Riyan’s eyes before they rolled back into his head. He went limp and collapsed into the snow with aground-shaking thud.
I wanted to scream, but my enchantment still keptme silent.
Ganora knelt next to Riyan’s lifeless body—as if he were nothing more than a mass of muscle and bone. Her icy eyes met mine and she quirked adevious smile.
A dare—she wanted me to try to takehim back.
Just as my fingers flexed toward my dagger, Ganora placed her hand on Riyan’s back and a flurry of snowflakes swirled around them in a vortex. The powerful flurry blew my hair back. I kept my feet planted and leaned into the cold. I nearly took a step forward when the biting cold faded and the snowflakes vanished—taking Riyan and Ganora with them intothe night.
I blinked once, then twice, wishing with each flutter of my lashes that Riyan would return from the darkness, but after three agonizing seconds, myheart sank.
The only noise through the silent snowfall was the whip of the wind through the craggy ridges at Nordingaard’s peak. The danger was gone and the enchantment in my blood released its hold onmy throat.
I fell to my knees in the snow and sobbed. My tears boiled as they left my eyes but slowly stung with fury as they rolled down tomy jaw.
Hewas gone.
I raised my face and my eyes found Endre’s Revenge lying in the snow—useless without the only man who could wield it. Riyan’s cape wrapped around the steel blade as it crumpled in the wind. The Bloodstones wore crimson to be seen on the mountain, but without it, how would I ever findRiyan again?
