Even if the plan clawed at every instinct I had, I trusted her to see it through.
And I wouldn’t be far.
Alexei, my Dreads, and I would be close enough to end anything that touched them.
Today, after everything she learned, she walked into that arena and took charge with a resilience that grounded me.
Seven Hells. This brilliant, strong creature continued to knock me to my knees. I ached to complete our bond. To make it official to the world that she was all fucking mine.
We’ll be there soon. Keep an eye on her,I ordered Rune, pulling out as the truth crushed my reality.
I didn’t lie to Lucille when I told her she claimed me first. Sure, she didn’t kiss me like our made-up rule dictated. A rule I could’ve easily satisfied before I presented my shadow flower. She wanted to kiss me. I felt it. More than that, I had felt the brush of her chilling, soothing essence against my own when she told the pet she’d foundhome.
Words couldn’t express how badly I wanted to kiss her then, to make her understand this was it. I ended where she began. For all the days I breathed and every silence after.
But I couldn’t do that until I relieved my festering guilt and admitted I knew she had been killing her mom. Then face the very realpossibility that I’d lose her and this fragile, imperfect, breathtaking story we’d begun to create.
I inhaled deeply. It didn’t ground me like the hellion. It didn’t strengthen me. The air filling my lungs did nothing to ease the hollowness growing in my chest.
Moving through the healers’ wing, I never caught sight of Sam. I paused near his lab door, the glowing yellow lock inciting rebellion in my body. How badly I wanted to break it down and find the truth. Even wrap my hands around his throat and squeeze out his answers. Was he in there now, crafting unforeseen disasters with our blood?
“Need something, General?” an attendant asked, peering up from her paperwork.
“Is he in there?”
“Yes.” She smiled politely, as if trying to soften thebutlingering in her answer. “He’s not seeing anyone right now, though.”
“Of course.” My shadows coiled inside me, twisting and squeezing, wishing for an outlet. “But I need you to ask Sam for some test tubes.”
She started to rise. “I can get you some?—”
“No. I’d like you to get them from Sam. Inform him Aspen and I are going to the Eternal Forest, near the lightless trees. I’m assuming he’ll want samples.”
She gestured toward his door. “Why don’t you…”
Pressure pulsed behind my eyes, and my lips flattened.
Her ponytail bounced as she nodded and scrambled out of her chair. She knocked on Sam’s door. “Elite Healer?” she inquired timidly.
“I’m busy!” he barked.
My shadows slammed against their cage, and I crossed my arms to keep from cracking my knuckles, squeezing my biceps instead.
“The general’s out here. He’s asking for some test tubes. Says he’s going to the Eternal Forest with Aspen and figured you might want samples.” Every sentence rose into a question.
Silence followed. A crash. Something shattered, and he cursed.
“Just give him supplies from the closet.”
“But he?—”
“I’ll take it.”
She scrunched her nose and waited for me to explain. When Ididn’t, her cheeks flushed. “Okay. Okay,” she muttered, grabbing her green amulet and fiddling with the chain as she hurried off.
I only felt a little bad as I left before she returned.
On my way out the door, Vanessa slammed into my chest.
