Before I could speak, I felt another more gentle hand on my shoulder. Lyssandra sat by my side, shooting her brother a scathing look. “Your bond wouldn’t have saved her,” she hissed to him. “You love her about as much as you love your new wedding cloak. Wanting to possess someone isn’t love, Arenn, and your desire to possess almost killed her.”
His jaw clenched. “What does it matter, if I still won? Lukas is dead, and now there is no one to stop me from taking her.” His heavy gaze fell to me. “You,my dear, are still mine.”
I wanted to scream at him, but my throat was too tight to speak.
“Are you sure about that?” Lyssandra purred.
I glanced at her, confused, when suddenly the strangest sensation washed over me. It started off as a cold tingle, fizzling up from my toes to my ears. Then it became intense heat as Arenn doubled over, collapsing against the cave floor.
“What’s happening?” he groaned. “What did you do?”He glared at his sister, but she only shrugged and motioned towards Lukas.
A shatter exploded over my skin. I gasped, but just as quickly as the feeling came, it’d gone. Blinking, I glanced down at my now throbbing wrist. The two blue crystals had faded to pink and rested on the floor, while my wrist was now bare. The only sign of any bond remaining was a faint blue tinge, rippling like water across my wrist.
Lukas’s bond. Not Arenn’s.
At least I still had that part of him.
“The bastard broke it,” Arenn spat. “I don’t believe it. Heactuallybroke it…” He continued muttering under his breath, but I’d already stopped listening.
“I can save you.” I whirled back to Lukas, determination burning inside me. Ignoring the dagger, I began applying compressions to his chest, just as I’d been taught. Heartflow restoration would fix him. It had to.
“It has to,” I sobbed. Pinching his nose, I blew hard into his mouth.
“Naria, stop,” Lyssandra whispered, edging closer to my side.
I ignored her. “Please wake up,” I hissed. The dagger would have to stay in for now; removing it would only make the bleeding worse. If only my other Corlixin friends were here… We could perform surgery! We could save him!
No.Iwould save him.
I continued compressions until a different, yet still familiar, voice sounded from across my patient. “Naria, it’s time to let him go.”
I glanced up to see the village mother standing aboveme. Light from the glowing crystals surrounded her white hair like a halo as she pushed up her half-moon spectacles. My heart soared.
“You’re here?” I gasped. Everything made sense now. Ivy was who I’d seen helping to keep the faeries back while Lukas fought Arenn. And it wasn’t just her. There were other Corlixins here, too. Enough to save him! “You have to help me stop the bleeding. We can operate just like we did when that little boy was impaled by the tree branch, remember? We can fix him!”
She offered me nothing but a sad smile. “He’s already gone, dear. There’s nothing more you can do.” She gently pried my hands away from Lukas. But I wanted to keep them there, keep hold of him forever.
“No.” I shrugged out of her hold. If she wouldn’t help me then someone else would.
“She’s right, human,” Arenn huffed from his spot on the cave floor. “Leave the corpse and I’ll propose to you again this evening. We’ll form a new bond. Everything will be as it was—”
“Say another word and I’ll rip out your tongue,” I screamed.
Eyes wide, he pushed up to sit, but I cut him off before he could speak. “Why are you so cruel to me?” I cried.
Arenn blinked. “What are you talking about? I love you.”
“But you don’t hurt people you love.” I yelled, steadying my racing breath. “You don’t lie to them, steal their memories, injure their friends…” I shuddered at the memory of Ivy’s blood soaked gown. “And you certainly don’t hurtthem. I still have scars on my arm from your thorns, Arenn.” Lifting myarm, I twisted it to show the tiny white scars I’d collected from his hedge maze.
“You did that to yourself,” he mumbled sheepishly.
“Just like when Lukas gave me those bruises in the library?” Pain throbbed in my chest. “You knew his punches would hurt me too, but you still provoked him. You may as well have beaten me yourself. It would’ve hurt less.”
Lyssandra shouted something at him, her words furious, but I could barely hear her over the blood roaring in my ears. I didn’t have time to listen to their argument. A plan was already threading together in my mind, but I needed Arenn gone.
“Today you hurt me more than anyone else ever could.” My sad tone cut through their bickering. “You took the one person I loved most, and worse than that, you made it so my hand was the hand that thrust that dagger into his chest.” I couldn’t help the sob that spilled out of me. It was so raw, it made something like regret flash across Arenn’s face before any emotion was swallowed by his clenched jaw.
“Naria,” he forced out. “You know I never meant to…”
