“I’d rather you maimed than her dead.”
A humorless laugh answered. “She’s going to fight me on it every step of the way.”
David looked at him likeAre you stupid?“You just tell her no. It isn’t that hard.”
Sean raised his brows and looked away. “Maybe not for you.”
He faced Sean full on, though Sean seemed far more reluctant to brave David’s gaze. “What doesthatmean?”
“Just—there’s—” Sean swept a hand through his hair, further mussing the black strands already curling around his face. “I want to give that girl everything she wants.”
David froze.
“And Ithink,” he continued, finally turning toward David, “that’s coming from you.”
A muscle in David’s jaw twitched, and he barely stopped himself from rubbing it away. “Have I mentioned how much I hate this soul-bond thing?”
“You have way more self-control than I do, David. She’s…in my head. I don’t know why you broke her, but all I want to do is fix it, which means I know you do, too. You’re justignoringit.”
“That’s what the ice is for, you fuckwit. Use it.”
Sean scowled. “I don’t like the ice. All I’m saying is if I try to tell her she can’t do this thing she wants to do and she argues with me with those blue fucking eyes, looking all sad andsave me—my heart is brokenlike she does now, all that’s going to happen is I’m going to cave.”
“You’re so weak,” David said, shaking his head.
“It’sAnna,” Sean said again.
He let out a heavy breath. “This is going to get very complicated.”
Sean’s fist clenched and unclenched, and his voicelowered to something barely audible. “You want her too much. It’s…distracting.”
“I could say the same about Isobel.”
A caustic smile appeared on Sean’s face. “Could you though?”
Well…
Maybe not. Isobel was all acid and fabricated heat, a counterfeit version of the golden shine surrounding Anna. Was that how it felt to Sean, too?
David was afraid to ask, and Sean merely stared, both of them silent, neither of them willing to breach the impasse.
A moment slipped by.
Then another.
And then an explosion of terror detonated inside his magical core. His every sense shrunk back from it—copper on his tongue, black spots in his vision, char in his nostrils. Hysteria and pain collided in a maelstrom that grew bigger by the second. Heknewthose emotions.
Anna’s emotions.
He leapt from the dais before he’d even made the decision to move. The mourners around him gasped as he shoved them out of the way, aiming straight for the vortex of Anna. He followed her emotions the way a dog tracked a scent, magic locked onto hers. Within moments, he was pounding up the steps to the nearest temple, Sean just behind him.
The door swung open, and at first David saw nothing. The place was empty. But then a dark heap caught his attention.
Anna.
A crimson lake seeped from her body. Starling hair fanned out behind her and covered her face. His knees cracked against the stone floor as he fell next to her, rolling her to her back. “Anna!”
She gasped.
