A full, body-wracking, desperate breath—like someone who’s been drowning finally breaking the surface.
Her fingers twitch.
Her chest rises again.
Something in my chest cracks open. My breath hitches—once, twice—and then my whole body is shaking, shoulders heaving, a sound tearing out of me that I don’t recognize. The sob comes out silent but it wrecks me anyway, doubling me forward until my forehead nearly touches her shoulder. My hand stays pressed to her heart, feeling it beat—steady now,realnow—while tears stream down my face and drip onto her shirt.
The others are reacting around me. Voices. Movement. Relief.
I don’t hear any of it.
I lower my forehead to her shoulder.
“Don’t ever do that to me again.”
My voice cracks on every word.
Softer.
“Please.”
She doesn’t answer.
But she breathes.
And thank the gods for that.
Chapter 5
Stellan
She breathes.
The sound cuts through everything—the chaos, the voices, the ringing aftermath of magic that almost destroyed us all.
Breebreathes.
Every wall I’ve ever built collapses at once.
I thought I lost her. Thoughtwelost her. I was certain of it. Watching the silver pour into her skin, watching her collapse, watching the light leave—I wascertain.
I’m moving before I’ve decided to move.
My hands find her shoulders. I pull her upright, pull her against my chest, wrap my arms around her like she might dissolve if I don’t hold on hard enough. She’s limp. Unconscious. But warm.Alive.
My hands are shaking.
I don’t shake. I’ve spent centuries perfecting control, building walls so high and thick that nothing gets through. And now my hands are trembling against her back like I’m a child who’s just watched the world end.
I bury my face in her hair.
She smells like ozone and ash andher—that impossible combination of vanilla and lightning that I’ve spent too long pretending doesn’t affect me.
My magic flares.
Uncontrolled. Wild. Silver-white light pulses from my skin in erratic bursts, responding to the terror and relief and grief crashing through me in waves I can’t stop.
That’s when I feel it.
