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I’d rejected him.

Because you’re a fool…

And now he was under attack from waterborne frostbrood—creatures from another world made of ice and malice. They were attacking the palace on Hurlock Island, my poor lover frozen in that damn ice they spewed under Aidan’s command.

Lover?

Shit. We had to get moving here to save him. I wasn’t losing him, not now. He was my constant, and the thought of him dying filled me with toxic terror.

I could see his face behind every blink, his citrussy scent forever tangled in my every breath.

I want you here with me…

“We need your help,” Vaughn told my parents, despite this air of what-the-fuckery.

Silvanus…

For the moment, I sank into thoughts of one of the nightmares ahead of us.

Aidan’s big reveal about the curse of the Knife of Fractured Rapture echoed in my mind. “When two hearts sing, so the melody of blood begins with undying. The curse will awaken the song of true love, yet also undo it. The walls will crumble, love exposed, and the blessed blade will make the cut of hope. Darkness will be purged from the world, the lovers expelled into doom. And the world will be free of the shadows.”

The death of the vampire king meant hope, freedom from the vampires. Right? But why go to these lengths? Who would use the Knife of Fractured Rapture to pull this off?

Gah! Questions seared through my brain, every single recent development too much to process.

“It isn’t just a myth,” Aidan had said, “but a true story of cursed lovers, the dagger a cruel weapon forged to take revenge on a traitorous lover… I think this means you were always destined to kill the vampire king.”

This wasn’t on the deity, despite him wanting me dead. Because me dying along with Silvanus, once the curse fulfilled itself, would free him from his pesky connection to me, allowing him to be fully Aidan.

I’d set him free, therefore he was bound to me and wanted me dead so he could wreak havoc at full power.

I just needed to confess my love for the vampire king to make it possible. Break the curse, lose my invincibility.

Goodbye, world.

I don’t love him…

I can’t love him…

If Aidan’s actions so far were him operating on a lesser scale, then him at full power wasn’t something I wanted to see. The fucker could possess folk to do his bidding, and teleport all over the place.

Anger broke through my inner walls. Anger over Silvanus being in jeopardy, anger at these elves who’d given me and Pearl up staring at me.

Drawing on all my strength, I forced myself upright.

“Someone please tell me what’s going on,” Elio pleaded.

The thrall was super confused, glancing between us.

The man finally spoke. “Get inside before the authorities arrive.”

He resembled Elio, the pair of them sharing the same tawny skin and hazel eyes. Elio’s hair was all glossy, chestnut curls, while his dad’s was also brown, but straighter and peppered with gray.

The woman wiped her eyes. Coral-skinned like me, with the same silver hair and cornflower-blue eyes. Her bottom lip trembled and she dipped her head in shame.

Elio’s forehead creased, his eyes boring into me. “What have you done?” he mouthed.

Ignoring him, I turned to follow the elves inside despite the sickly twisting in my belly.