“I’m still here,” I promise, and I press my forehead against hers, my breathing uneven, my hands shaking where they hold her. “I’ve always been here. And I know you have, too.”
And then she’s kissing me again, and I’m pulling her under with me, and time stops existing.
Because I don’t care that we’re on a spectral ship lost to the Tides. I don’t care that she’ll hate me when we leave this place. I don’t care that I’ll never deserve her.
Because right now, Ihaveher.
And I’ll take every single second of it before fate rips it away from me again. Because for the first time in days, she’s looking at me like I’m something other than a mistake. And for the first time in my life, I’m letting myself believe it.
But then, as if the Universe is determined to destroy the one good moment we’ve had since that cursed dryad’s tree, the ship lurches, the air around us shifts, and a new vision unfolds.
I barely register the moment Sapphire turns from me and gasps.
Because in the vision, she’s standing over two lifeless bodies, her dagger raised and dripping with blood.
Her face is streaked with crimson, her hands stained with it, her expression hard, cold, and unreadable.
And at her feet?—
Zoey.
And me.
Dead. Motionless.Gone.
The air leaves my lungs, ice crackling at my fingertips as the truth settles over me like a death sentence.
Sapphire is going to kill me.
And I don’t know why, but I feel like that version of myself is going tolether.
