and bleeds across the snow as he pushes it away from his chest.
“You’re not going to win. You were never supposed to,” he says then tightens his grasp on the blade and jerks it from my hand.
Alex runs toward me as Stephan flips the knife around in his hand.
“Don’t touch her,” Alex warns as he reaches my side.
“Oh, I’m not planning on it yet.” Drawing the knife back, he strikes the blade at Alex.
The prickle stabs at the back of my neck, and without even thinking, I jump between the two of them. The blade sinks deep into my chest, knocking the air out of me.
“No!” Alex shouts, catching me as I fall.
Stephan’s laugh echoes around us. “Don’t worry, she’s not going to die just yet, not until I get the star.”
“No . . . No . . . No . . .” Alex stares at me in horror as I lie dying in his arms.
He has cuts on his face, his eye is swollen shut, and he looks so beaten down. “This isn’t right. This isn’t how it’s supposed to happen. You can’t die without me.”
“I can,” I say, gasping for air. “That’s what the knife was for. It has witch’s blood powerful enough to break our bond.”
“You knew this and you didn’t . . .” He stops himself from scolding me as his eyes overflow with tears. “I was supposed to save you.”
“Nope, this time”—my breath falters as I fight to breath—“I’m saving you.”
Rage flares in his eyes as he picks up a large rock and reels toward his father. Stephan grins at him, and something inside Alex snaps.
“You’re dead,” he says, and then he lunges at him, bashing his father on the side of the head with a rock.
The sound of his skull cracking is sickening, and takes Stephan by surprise. He drops the knife as he staggers back with blood streaming down the side of his face.
Alex scoops up the knife and, without any hesitation, stabs Stephan right in the heart.
“You killed me,” Stephan says, partially shocked, partially impressed. “I didn’t think you had it in you.”
Alex turns his back on his father and rushes toward me. “Don’t die on me, okay?” He cups my face, his hands trembling. “You need to just keep breathing. I’m going to save you.”
“You can’t.” My lungs feel tight, like they’re being crushed, yet for some odd reason, I don’t feel any pain. All I feel is him. “We need to kill the star now.”
“Not until I know you’re okay. I made a deal . . . You were supposed to be okay.”
“No matter what deal you made . . . I was always going to die . . . because that’s how this is supposed to go . . . It was always supposed to be me . . .” I could tell him right there that I saved him, but I know he’ll only make saying goodbye harder if knows. “I love you. I really do.”
“I love you, too,” he says, choking on a sob. “Always have, always will. Forever.”
Those are the magic words that free our bodies from the star—that save the world. The energy smolders across my skin one final time before the heat singes the Death Walkers into ashes and then swallows me up.
I see everything that happened and everything that will never be—my past and the future I’ll never have. Every emotion I ever felt flashes through me at once: hurt, happiness, pain, love, what it would have felt like to be a mother. Then my body sinks into the earth as my life slips away. The star dies, taking my soul with it and freeing Alex’s.
Still, I like to believe that a tiny piece of my soul still lives inside him, that when he saved my soul, he not only gave me a part of his, but I gave him a part of mine, as well.
That, even through death, we will be bonded together.
Forever.
GEMMA
Death isn’t as bad as I expected it to be. It’s warm and bright and weightless like air. I feel like I soared off to the sun, where nothing matters, where pain doesn’t exist. Only sunshine, so much sunshine.
I feel so at peace.
That is, until I hear a Banshee wail, obliterating the harmony.
I open my eyes, remembering the bargain I made with Helena, how I promised her my soul in exchange for Alex to live and continue with his life, free from his father and the star, raising our daughter