Lu is valuable—goddess-forged and wanted by Vidaris. And if Vidaris wants her, then I won’t let Vidaris have her. Our group can go on without me, but they need Lunaria. Making the split decision to jump in front of Lu wasn’t just fueled by my love for her, but also by knowing how royally fucked we would be without her.
She may not know it yet, but she’s destined for something bigger than all of us. And I refuse to let Vidaris get to her.
My magic stirs in my veins, a fiery heat crawling beneath my skin. Just as it begins to answer my call, sparks dancing across my fingertips, the chains of ice splinter off. Tendrils of freezing water cover my body, abruptly cutting off my fire.
A hiss sounds from beside me, snapping my thoughts back to the present. Back to being Vidaris’s plaything.
“Pay attention, Aegis,” Vidaris snaps. She grins, a viper clothed in flesh. “This is the good part. It’s new… I think you’ll like it.”
My vision turns hazy, the desolate wasteland around me morphing into something else.
Suddenly, I’m running, the trees of Crea’s castle gardens surrounding me. The stars are out, shining brightly. Lu is running beside me, asking me if I would rather be a bird or a bear. Her perfect voice is breathless from the run, but she doesn’t slow.
“Anything with wings.” The answer slips out before I can stop it. She has always had a way of drawing words from me.
Lunaria’s soft lips part, her brows flicking up. Her guarded gaze reminded me of a caged bird, screaming to be let out.
“That’s what I always say!” she says with a small laugh, the sound like twinkling bells that tap against my chest.
She turns toward me, her face open and bright.
Suddenly, she sucks in a sharp breath, her guarded eyes sparking with fear as she looks down.
“Graylen?” she stammers.
A sticky, wet substance covers my hand, along with a metal object that my fingers are wrapped around. I quickly drop my eyes to what she’s staring at, and my heart stops.
“No,” I rasp.
Within my grasp is a knife, and it’s plunged into Lunaria’s throat.
She coughs, causing me to frantically look up at her, only to find tears streaming down her face.
“No!” The word tears from my throat, hoarse and pleading. “No, no, no—this isn’t how this happened.”
I take a step toward her, my body slow and heavy. Something feels wrong about this; it shouldn’t?—
Lu drops to the ground, too fast for me to catch. I drop to my knees, my heart hammering in my chest as her eyes slide slowly over to me.
“Why?” she chokes out. “You said you would always protect me.”
Pain crashes into me like a wave as her broken body shivers against my chest. I pull her in closer, rocking our bodies back and forth against the cold ground. Mud seeps through my pants and onto my knees, but I hardly feel it.
All I can feel is how cold Lunaria is in my arms.
“Lu, please,” I beg. “Please.”
This isn’t real, this isn’t real,I chant in my mind, over and over again, squeezing my eyes shut.
Darkness pulls me under, and a distant blood-curdling laugh beckons me toward it.
“She really did a number on you.” A deep, feminine voice jolts me awake like a bucket of ice water being poured on me.
I blink, taking in the red sky above me. Chains of ice are wrapped around my wrists, ankles, waist, and neck.
Lunaria and I were in the gardens together, training and running, and then her cold, lifeless body within my arms… But that isn’t right—that isn’t how it happened. Though I can’t seem to place how itdidhappen.
The memory of training in the garden with Lu is different. Changed.
