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I glanced down at my trembling hands to see them covered in blood so black it looked like spilled ink.

My insides twisted violently. The pain was so intense and sudden that my vision darkened. A blood-curdling scream tore through my throat.

My body folded around itself as nausea clawed viciously up my throat.

What the fuck is happening?

The bond of warm, golden light burst open inside me, blazing through every nerve until agony consumed me whole.

I reached for it instinctively, throwing every wall I could find around the tether.

It only burned brighter.

Wider.

The sharp tearing sensation tore through me again. Blood spilled out of my mouth and dribbled down my chin.

My back bowed violently, every muscle locking until I thought my spine might snap beneath the strain. A scream clawed its way up my throat, dying on a wet choke as another mouthful of blood splattered across the floor.

I couldn't breathe. I couldn't think.

Emotions that weren't mine crashed through the bond in relentless waves until I no longer knew where my heart ended and his began.

Fear.

Rage.

Defiance.

An aching longing filled with regret.

Helion.

Even through the agony, his warmth reached for me.

It wrapped itself around my soul with impossible gentleness, holding me through the searing pain.

I clung to it.

My body convulsed so violently my teeth slammed together, another spray of blood staining the floor. Every breath tore through my chest like broken glass, my vision swimming as darkness crowded the edges.

He was breaking and I could feel every damn moment.

And somehow...

He was still trying to hold me together.

Chapter Twenty-One

Beg

Lyra

Warm amber danced across the stark white walls, cloaking the room in a gentleness that felt almost mocking after the agony it had held.

I blinked beneath the trembling candlelight and pushed myself upright, only making it as far as sitting before the room tilted beneath me. Nausea rolled through my stomach, and I caught myself on a shaking hand.

A blanket I had no recollection of grabbing clung to me like the echoes of pain. The coarse fabric had dried to my skin with blood in stiff patches.