CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
CHAPTERTWENTY-FIVE
Everything was dark.
There was warmth somewhere far away, like sunlight through water. A voice too–low, rough, desperate. It was calling to me, begging.
Come back to me.
Lucien.
I fought toward it, toward him, toward the sound of my name wrapped in that voice. My chest felt heavy, tight, then it burned. A blinding, searing light surged through me, and I breathed.
Gasped.
My eyes flew open.
Stone ceiling, flickering light, warmth around me… strong arms holding me tight.
“Lucien?” I rasped.
He jerked back, staring down at me like he didn’t dare believe it. His face… his face was a wreck. Eyes brimmed red, jaw clenched, blood on his hands…
My blood …
“Mia,” he choked out. “You’re… you’re here.
He pulled me flush against him, holding me so tightly that it pushed the air from my lungs.
“I thought I lost you,” he breathed against my hair. “I thought… I thought I killed you.”
I pulled back just enough to look at him, my brows furrowing. “What happened?”
He cupped my face as if it might vanish, searching my eyes. “Serena possessed you. I didn’t know it was you… I used the dagger. Mia, I am so sorry.”
The memory came back to me then. The wraith, my magic draining me. Serena had done it on purpose. It had been her plan all along to exhaust me enough so she could take my body.
“You brought me back,” I whispered.
His hand hovered over the locket, now dim against my chest. “I used the piece of your soul.”
Realization struck against my heart. The piece of my soul that was meant for him. He had used it to save me.
“Lucien,” I breathed, my voice trembling. “That means…”
“I’m still cursed,” he answered before I could finish.
Tears filled my eyes as I reached up and touched his face. My hand no longer touched the warmth I knew. His arms were still around me, his breath soft against my cheek, but he was fading.
His skin, once golden and warm with life, was paling to the hue of old parchment. His edges blurred, the dark coat he wore dissolving like smoke on the wind.
“No,” I whispered, my voice cracking as tears slipped down my cheek. “I don’t want this… I don’t want to be saved if it means losing you.”
His hand cupped my cheek, his finger brushing away a tear just before his fingers began to vanish.
“I will always love you, Mia,” he whispered, voice softer than a breath. “Even if time forgets me. Even if the stars fall from the sky. Even if the world burns to ash and no one remembers our names. I will find you in every life, in every shadow. I will love you forever.”
“Please don’t leave me,” I choked, trying to hold onto what was no longer there.
His lips ghosted against my forehead. “I don’t have a choice, my love.”
Then he was gone.
I collapsed to the floor, my arms empty, his warmth gone like a dream. The locket lay against my chest, cold and still.
And I broke.
I wept until my voice was hoarse, until the stones beneath me were slick with tears, until there was nothing left but the echo of his name in my throat and the shattering of a heart that had just learned what it was to be full.