Then the unexplainable happened. Something flickered in her eyes, like something was shoved aside to make room. And her voice echoed in his head.
“There’s the wolf.”
Shock froze his limbs, and he gaped at his sister.
A wisp of purple smoke snaked from her hand and caressed his mind. It went blank. He blinked. It was all he could do as her magic reduced him to putty. He released her wrists, stood, and Kahlia sprinted out the door.
Several minutes later, he shook his head and finally got a grip on reality. Angry with himself, he shoved through the crowd, desperate to get to Emmery.
A voice called his name, and he saw red.
He broke into a sprint, his chest convulsing and wheezing. He spat blood onto the stone. When he caught sight of them, he grit his teeth and stalked forward, ready for a fight. Ready to tear Destonne’s fucking head off once and for all. Because how dare he call him. How dare he even speak his name aloud. The bloody, traitorousfilth—
A wall of golden flame shot up, and Vesper staggered to a stop.
“What the fuck are you doing, Emmery?” he barked. Through the golden wall he glimpsed her tear-stained face, red clouded her eyes, like her blood vessels had burst.Fuck, he was going to wring that bastard’s neck.
Destonne’s voice bled through the fire. “I’m calling in our bargain.”
The hoarse words ground from his throat like stone on stone. Vesper’s spine went ramrod straight. Bound by their pactum, he was forced to listen.
“Whatever happens,” Destonne continued, his voice muffled through the crackling flames, though his vulnerability rang loud and clear, “I need you to get her out of here. Alive. And—” His voice broke.
Vesper’s brows drew together. Only the adrenaline rushing in his blood kept him upright.
“Take care of her for me.”
Vesper opened his mouth to tell him that he was a prick, but then Destonne’s words sank in. Take care of her? What the fuck was happening?
He looked between Destonne’s face covered in blood and Emmery’s tear-streaked cheeks. Unsure what to do, he stood there, his hair whipping his face.
Destonne took her face in his hands and kissed her. He murmured something, and Emmery sobbed, her body shaking, breaking, shattering.
The wall of fire died down and she had her hand over his heart. They said something low to each other.
And then Emmery sank her flame into Destonne’s chest.
CHAPTER SEVENTY-THREE
EMMERY
The blinding white fire, monsters shrieking, bodies piling up, and black blood spraying blurred over Destonne’s shoulder. Emmery shoved all the anarchy and death away, and there was only them.
Her and Dez against the world.
His words echoed in her head, battering her.I think the thorns broke me down and remade me. Tore away my insides and scraped me raw. They left me this empty, soullessthing.
But Dez had never been soulless. He’d never been evil or empty or cruel or any of those lies people spewed about him. He was her greatest friend and her future.
He would have been everything for her. Would have greeted her every morning with knee-weakening kisses and relentless teasing. He would have given her that family she dreamed of. Would have spoiled and loved her and kept his promise to see her through this prophecy. And he never would have turned away from her.
As his thorns crackled under the force of her flame and she targeted the prison of parasitic vines, she wept. For so long he’d endured this world—this agony—alone, and though he’d hardened himself against its cruelty, he'd let her see his softness. Let her hold it. And now that she’d felt life with his touch, with his hand and his heart, she couldn’t face it without him.
She cried for all the things she couldn’t have. All the things she never would. Thattheyneverwould. It was so fucking unfair.
Dez clenched his teeth through his cries, though the sound chipped away at her soul, little by little. He begged her not to stop. He begged and pleaded and said her name over and over and it embedded into her memory.
This was his choice. Done by her hand.