Chapter 67
Chapter Sixty-Seven
O h my Gods.
Sebastian.
Evie.
Their names hit me in the heart, sharp and merciless. The air ripped from my lungs.
“We have to find them.” The words tore from my throat, too jagged, too broken to sound human.
Maalikai shook his head.
Slow. Crushed.
"We can't," he said. "It's too risky."
"You don't understand!" My voice cracked, fists trembling, nails biting deep into my palms—moon-shaped crescents bleeding into my skin.
“Evie–I just got her back, and Sebastian–he's only out there because of me! Because I broke him! Because I didn't choose him!" My voice splintered. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't— "I have to save him," I gasped. "I have to save them.”
Maalikai’s eyes darkened—not with jealousy.
With something worse. Something that shattered him.
"What would you have me do?" he asked, voice low, ragged, barely holding the fury together.
"Risk your life for theirs?”
"YES!" I screamed it.
I didn't care who heard. I didn't care if it broke me.
"Yes, Maalik! If that's what it takes—my life for theirs—then yes!"
Pain cracked across his face. The kind of pain you never recover from.
"If you found him, them” Maalikai said, voice shaking, "you’d put them in even more danger."
I froze.
No.
No.
"After today," he rasped, "every force that breathes will come for us. Every warlord. Every mercenary. Every bastard who thinks they can leash you. They will want to harness you, harness your power.”
He stepped closer, stealing my air as he pressed his forehead to mine. "After today, they’ll know," he whispered. "They’ll know magik exists. And they'll want to own it."
Another stuttered breath, his eyes betraying how much his words broke him. Because I knew voicing this aloud felt like he was sealing my fate.
“There will be no safe place left, Princess. Not for you. Not for me. Not for them.”
Tears blurred my vision. But I didn’t back away.
I couldn't.
"The best thing we can do," he said, voice breaking open, "the only thing—is to lead them away."
My stomach twisted. My heart shattered all over again.
No.
I refused to leave them behind.
I refused.
"The Western Wastelands," Maalikai said, almost choking on the words. "We'll go there. We'll draw those who hunt us into the desert. Raise an army. Sacrifice ourselves if that's what you demand of me."
My heart twisted with realization.
It wasn't just my life I was offering.
It was his too.
I would have to choose who I was willing to sacrifice.
"I can't sacrifice you," I choked out. “Not any more than I could sacrifice them."
"I'm not asking you for permission," he said roughly. "It’s my choice. And I’ve already made it. I'll follow you into the fiery depths of Nexus itself. Not even you could stop me."
At least this way—if I chose to go with him, if I chose the Wastelands and the death they promised—I could protect them. Between Maalikai’s lethal precision and my unleashed power, we were untouchable.
Or at least, I had to believe we were.
Because if I didn't... I wouldn't survive what came next.
His hand gripped mine—tight, desperate, shaking. "If you still want to sacrifice yourself for them,” Maalikai said, " this is how you do it."
"Not by dying," he rasped. "By surviving. By staying alive long enough to pull every monster, every threat, every curse away from them.”
The Western Wastelands.
The unknown.
A death sentence.
My life for Evie’s. For Sebastian’s.
Our lives–for them.
I closed my eyes. And guilt ripped through me like a blade.
Wild. Unforgiving.
Every instinct screamed to turn back. To fight. To die with them if I had to.
But Maalikai was right.
If I loved them—truly loved them—this was the only way.
The only hope.
Even if it meant becoming a ghost. Even if it meant dying slow, invisible, bleeding across the sands.
I would go. I would lead them away.
For Evie.
For Sebastian.
For vengeance.
Taking a deep, shaking breath, I forced my eyes open and met Maalikai’s gaze.
"I'm ready," I whispered.
A lie. A promise. A prayer.
One I would rip myself apart to keep.
He brushed his lips against my forehead. A broken benediction. A brand.
"Your strength is incomparable," he said, voice cracking. "Your courage... beyond beautiful."
Before I could respond, his mouth claimed mine—fierce, desperate, breaking under the weight of everything we could no longer say aloud.
For one heartbeat—the pain dulled.
But it didn’t stay hidden.
It could never stay hidden.
When the kiss ended, Maalikai laced his fingers through mine—and this time I clutched him back like if I let go, I would simply blow away in the breeze.
No words.
No more goodbyes.
Just two broken souls stepping forward.
Into the desert.
Into whatever waited beyond the ashes of the world we once knew.
Into the unknown.