“What the fuck, man?” He huffs,
I pay him no heed; my gaze fixed on her. As she still stands there, statue still watching me.
“Who is she?” Clutch asks as he gets to his feet beside me.
“My wife.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
LILITH
“Silas!”The scream rips out of me before I can stop it, panic crushing my chest so hard I can’t breathe. I pull back, and everything inside me shatters. The dagger—the one Cain gave me—is buried deep in his stomach. “No…” The word falls from my lips, hollow. Useless. “No, no, no…” I shake my head over and over, like I can undo it, like if I refuse to believe it hard enough, the blade will disappear.
It doesn’t. His body collapses against mine, all his strength gone in an instant. I catch him, lowering him to the ground, cradling his head in my lap as if I can keep him here, keep him from slipping away. Black ichor spills from his mouth, thicker now, darker, choking him with every shallow breath. His eyes—those endless, onyx eyes—lock onto mine. Still him. StillSilas.My hands tremble as I cup his face, my vision blurring, tears spilling faster than I can stop them. I brush his hair back, wiping at the black staining his lips, as if I can make it better. As if I can fix this.
“I know you love him,” he chokes. The words hit like a blade twisting deeper.
I shake my head violently. “No, you’re wrong,” I sob, my voice breaking apart. “Ilovedhim. I gave him my heart—” My breath hitches, the truth clawing its way out of me, raw and unfiltered. “But you…” The words stick. Burning. “You have my soul.”
His breath stutters. A broken, gargled sound tears from his throat.
“No, no, no!” I scream, shaking now, my whole body coming apart. “Lucian! Someone, please, help him!”
But something is wrong. Terribly wrong. The chaos stops. One by one, the vessels freeze, then double over, clutching their stomachs. Black ichor pours from their mouths, their bodies collapsing like puppets with their strings cut. Morbius staggers, his violet eyes wild, locking onto us. Onto Silas.
“No…” he breathes, horror flooding his face. “Brother, no!”
The last word breaks, swallowed by the same black poison spilling from his lips. Cara stands beside me. NoFiadh.
She clutches her stomach, her movements stiff, unnatural. Then, without a word, she reaches down and rips the dagger from Silas. A scream tears from him, raw and animal, his body arching in agony.
“Stop!” I cry, reaching for her. But she doesn’t look at me. Doesn’tseeme.
She just… walks away. “Fiadh?” Cain’s voice cracks behind me, a sound so broken it barely sounds human. I turn, stunned, watching as he stares at her like he’s seen a ghost. Like his entire world has just been dragged out of the grave and hollowed out before him.
“My wife…”
The words barely exist.
She doesn’t respond. Her face is empty. Cold. Gone. She moves through the vessels like they aren’t even there—untouched, unseen—until she reaches Morbius. He’s slumpedagainst the wall now, clutching his stomach, but his fear isn’t for himself. It’s for Silas. I feel it then, the bond; the curse tying them together. Silas dies… he dies too.
“Get a healer!” Morbius snaps, desperation bleeding into fury. “Now!” But we all know. There is no healer for this. Fiadh doesn’t hesitate. The blade flashes and slices clean across his throat.
Morbius’s eyes widen in shock, hands flying to his neck as black ichor pours through his fingers like a dark, endless tide.
Silas jerks violently in my arms. My attention snaps back to him. “Silas.” His eyes are wide, terror swallowing what little strength he has left. Tears spill from them; black, thick, carving dark trails down his ashen skin.
“Help…” he gasps, voice barely there. “Gods… help…”
I break. “I don’t know how!” I sob, clutching him tighter, like I can hold him together through sheer will. “I don’t know what to do!”
Lucian drops beside me, Evelynn close behind.
His face, always so controlled, so unshakable, is shattered. Panic. Helplessness. It terrifies me more than anything else. “What do I do?” I beg, grabbing onto him like he’s the last thing tethering me to sanity. “Tell me how to save him!”
His jaw tightens, his amber eyes glassy with something dangerously close to tears. “I…” He falters. Swallows. Breaks. “I don’t know.”
The words crush what’s left of me. Silence follows, heavy and suffocating. The only sound left is Morbius choking on his own blood somewhere behind me. Then, stillness; too sudden, too final.
