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He blinked his eyes open and smiled at her, but when he saw her expression and the glimmer of her White Magic, he jumped up, almost exploding into the air, and hauled her with him. In an instant, he had her pinned against the wall, and with one hand he immobilized her right.

His face looked violent.

Now she understood why he never wanted her to do a diagnostics on him.

“You’re…dying?” she said between sobs, the different parts of her diagnostics replaying in her mind over and over again.

He didn’t deny it.

“I can start researching a cure,” she gasped in panic.

“There is no cure. This was Mercer’s parting gift to me.”

Panic and heartbreak spread in her in equal measure. Every interaction they ever had replayed in a different light now. Every word he had spoken changed meaning. He had told her to listen to Obryn and stay away from him. She had seen him take so much direweed early on. It had never clicked in her brain what it had meant.

Her hand clawed at his shirt, but he didn’t give her an inch.

“How long have you known?” Her voice was raw with emotion.

“I knew it was a death sentence when Mercer installed the enthrallment. I just didn’t know how long I’d have. Obryn was able to buy me some time. So I could get things in order.”

She sobbed harder, and his expression softened as he rested his forehead against hers.

“Mira,” he whispered into her hair, and she wanted to bottle up the feeling it ignited in her soul and hold on to the memory forever. “I’m sorry. I should have kept my distance.”

Obryn had told her not to get attached.

Not everyone can be saved, Miss Winters.

She shook her head in defiance. “No, I don’t accept that.”

His hand on her wrist tightened. “You won’t have to,” he said with a soft smile.

You won’t have to.

What did that mean? He had said there was no cure.

Before she could even think, she felt cold metal on her right hand. It was a magic suppression device. That’s when she understood. Her entire body trembled violently, and her heartbeat thrashed in her ears as the full meaning of his words slammed into her with force.

You won’t have to.

“No, Aidric, please.”

A muscle in his jaw twitched. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

The moment when he erased the memories of the two students who had overheard their conversation was clear in her mind. How easy it was for him to wield it. How natural it seemed. “No, you’re going to make me forget.”

His silver eyes met hers in silent acknowledgment. She struggled against his grip, unable to use any of her five signifiers to fight him off.

“Please, don’t make me forget.”

Every bit of her soul burned with panic. He was going to take away everything she knew of him. He couldn’t entirely erase him from her life because her friends would be able to fill her in, but he could erase the feelings she had for him. He would be able to make her forget she had ever loved him.

“Please,” she begged through tears. “Don’t do this.”

He said nothing, and she knew that with one quick spell, he would make her forget everything they had. And then, one day soon, she would learn of Aidric Dawson’s untimely death and it would mean nothing to her.

“Who else knows?” she heaved, trying to avoid the inevitable.