body had all but extinguished, and the last leaves and flowers were bleeding out of existence. Around us, the world shimmered like a mirage.
“Leena.” I caught her as she tipped back, her body heavy and colder than a block of ice.
The realm shattered, blinding-white light slipping between fractured glass, and we were thrust back into our reality. Ortega Key bloomed to life around us, and we barreled into a heap of sand.
I sat upright and pulled her into my lap, calling her name more forcibly. “Leena. Leena.”
She shivered, unresponsive; her fingers entrenched in my shirt. The shadows swarmed us in an instant, barreling us toward the inn and her room. I flew through her door, slamming it shut behind us and racing toward her bed. I tried to untangle her, but her muscles had frozen in place.
So cold. I stared at the bed. She needed warmth, but I couldn’t get her to let go. I didn’t really want her to. That realization was deadly, and yet…
Yanking back the sheets, I slid beneath them and cradled her to my chest. Lilac and vanilla, aftereffects of the beast realm, filled the space between the crown of her head and my nose.
Her story played on repeat in my mind as she slept, her weighted breath tickling the space between my shoulder and neck. She was remarkable. Despite the damage she carried, despite the way she worried the ring on her finger, as if trying to turn back time to a moment when everything made sense, she was so incredibly light. Too bright for my world, yet so strong that she saw through my carefully crafted facade.
The black scythe on my wrist gleamed up at me, a taunting reminder that it was my life or hers. This was why we assassins didn’t speak to our jobs. Why we kept everyone other than ourselves, our brethren, at arm’s length. If I refused to act on the bounty, I would die. But where would that leave Cruor? If I had enough notice, I could perform the ritual to name Kost my successor, but he’d die himself before watching me willingly walk into the god of death’s arms. Again.
Shadows bled from my fingertips and hovered around us. Death didn’t scare me. But now that there was a chance for something more…
No. No.
The shadows eked away, leaving me all too exposed.
When Leena’s grip relaxed, I slipped out from underneath her and tucked the sheets in tight around her body. She looked so frail, and my arms were so unbelievably empty, but she was too deep under my skin. Fable was wrong—the problems of my past couldn’t be fixed. There was nothing in this world that could change that. I’d been given false promises of a cure before, after I’d condemned Bowen to death. But nothing ever worked, as evidenced by Kost’s sickness that followed years later. I couldn’t do that again. Not now. Not to anyone. Most of all, not to Leena.
I couldn’t escape my curse, couldn’t attempt to have something more with her, but I could try to save her from this bounty. There was another way out of this damned oath, a method to negate the magic that no one had ever stooped to before. I’d discuss the idea with Kost, Calem, and Ozias. If they didn’t agree, then I’d have to say goodbye to Leena in the worst possible way—permanently.
Fourteen
Leena
I must have lost track of the time in the realm, because I didn’t remember returning to my room. Every muscle in my body ached. Every breath rattled my rib cage. Every accidental movement spiked pain in my neck. How many times would I overclock myself, physically and emotionally, in the presence of these assassins?
I should’ve asked Fable to make it impossible for me to repeat my past. I never thought I’d share those intimate details, and yet Noc’s unyielding gaze had upended me. Peeled back layers I didn’t think I could fold back up, and I was exposed. I needed to understand why. Why he pried into my past. Why his demeanor had shifted from one of detachment to something far more dangerous…
My heart throbbed at his absence, at the heavy weight of our conversation. No closure. No words about his past or his thoughts. I didn’t know why it mattered. Nothing could ever occur between us. My people had exiled me from my home, but I’d long since decided to exile myself from love. And yet, I was raw and revealed, and there was