Edge of Dawn Page 0,83

Mira’s heart in real time, made her lips tremble in echoed reaction. She wanted to look away now, before she saw any more. But then all heads in the gallery turned to look behind them as the accused entered the chamber to hear the sentencing.

Kellan.

Oh, God. It was just as he’d said.

He strode forward, broad shoulders squared, head lifted, but she could see resignation in his handsome face as he looked at her. Mira could nearly feel his stoic acceptance as she watched the scene unfold in her reflected gaze.

Her vision-self whirled back around to face the ones who held Kellan’s fate in their hands. She pleaded with them. Tried to draw some of the blame to her instead. To no avail. They announced their edict just as Kellan had told her they would. For the capital crimes Kellan stood accused of . . . death.

As the vision continued, Mira knew her anguish could not possibly be worse.

But she was wrong.

Because then the terrible vision Kellan had prepared her for began to fade into a misty darkness. Another image began to take shape in her reflected gaze. Something dreadful. Something far, far worse than the prospect of Kellan’s execution.

His lifeless body, pale and unmoving, laid out before her.

No . . .

No! Her mind screamed in anguish. Or maybe she’d actually screamed her horror out loud. All she knew was the incredulity, the bone-deep grief, that overcame her as her vision-self collapsed atop his dead body and began to wail.

It couldn’t be true.

It could not possibly end like that for them.

She could never bear that level of pain.

She would rather die along with—

The mirror flew out of her hands and crashed into the nearby wall, raining shards of broken glass.

She jumped at the shock of what just happened, the abrupt startlement yanking her out of the vision’s unbreakable hold.

Kellan loomed over her, seething so fiercely he shook with the depth of his feelings. Heat rolled off his body in palpable waves. His eyes were throwing sparks, his lips peeled back from his fangs.

“What the hell were you doing?” His voice was pure thunder, more furious than she’d ever heard him. “Mira, goddamn it. Tell me you didn’t try to—ah, Jesus.”

He looked away from her now, turning his head away from her naked eyes. Still shaken, still raw with the grief from the awful things she’d just witnessed, Mira scrambled to put her lenses in. By the time she had, Kellan had sunk down to his knees on the floor in front of her.

“Mouse, for fuck’s sake. Why would you . . . What in God’s name were you thinking?” He took her upper arms in a tight grasp, trembling. “Look at me, baby. I need to see you. I need to know you’re okay.”

She lifted her face to meet his blazing stare. His face blurred through the tears filling her eyes. “I’m . . . Oh, God, Kellan! You were right. The vision. The judgment. All of it.”

“You saw,” he murmured, and his grip went a bit slack then. “You used your vision on yourself. Mira . . . why?”

“I had to know. I didn’t want to believe it. I couldn’t make myself believe it . . . until now.” Her voice caught, scraping in her throat. “I saw everything, just like you described it. And there was something more. Oh, God. Kellan, they sentenced you to death and then I saw you. You were—” She couldn’t speak the word. On a sob, she fell against him, exhausted and hurting. “I can’t bear to lose you. Not again. Not like that.”

He gathered her close, wrapping his muscled arms around her. “I don’t want to face that reality either. If I could keep you with me, hold you forever, I would.”

She nodded against his warm chest, wishing desperately for the same thing. She needed to feel his arms around her. She needed to feel his heartbeat, his breathing, his body’s strength and heat. She needed to feel for herself that he was with her, whole and hale. He was alive.

As she clung to him, her gaze drifted over the broken mirror and scattered, glittering splinters on the floor nearby. A new grief tore at her. “Your grandmother’s mirror . . . Kellan, I’m sorry. It’s ruined because of me.”

“I don’t give a damn about that,” he whispered against the top of her head. “All I care about is you. You can’t even be sure of the damage you’ve done to yourself tonight,