Page 139 of Steel Heart Iron Claws

“A bauble? That bauble wins me Thracia every Return,” he snarls. “We know her location. She’s almost at my fingertips. I’ve waited a thousand years to be with her again.”

The tension between them is thick enough to cut, and I curl my toes as I look over my shoulder at the castle. Dammit, we don’t have time for this. Every second they argue is a second that Basten might slip away. The fear of losing him lodges so thick in my throat that I can barely swallow around it.

A robin swoops down in front of me, flapping hard in warning.

The fae huntsman is?—

Before it can finish, a gold-tipped arrow slams into the bird’s breast with enough force that feathers burst out. The robin tumbles onto a piece of rubble, its neck hanging at an impossible angle.

A scream pierces the air—my own.

As my fingers tighten in the base of Tòrr’s mane, I spin like a whip, ready to lash out.

At the edge of the woods, Artain holds another arrow at the ready. “Hello, princess. This time, I’ll shoot straight through your damn lover’s head and roast his brain on a spit.”

And it’s Too. Fucking. Much.

Anger floods me like a raging river, drowning me in a torrent of fury. Bile rises up my throat, choking me with bitter rage until every nerve ignites. My vision blurs as I feel a scream clawing up from the depths of my chest, ready to rip free and end this—once and for all.

Chapter 35

Basten

My thoughts scatter like leaves in the wind. I can’t tell what’s real and what’s a dream anymore. But if I’m dreaming, then hell,let it be this one.

Let me dream of her.

Her smile. Her power. That fire in her eyes when she looks at me like I’m more than a street boy with bloodied knuckles. Maybe I can’t remember our past, but I canfeelit. It’s as alive in my bones as my marrow, giving me strength. I guess one fae tale was true, huh, Sabine? We’re Aron and Aria all over again. The Fate-Spun Lovers. Destined to find one another.

But it’s more than that, isn’t it? It’s about choice—choosing you each time, in every lifetime, cost be damned.

I don’t care if I never recover a single memory of us. I’ll make new ones. Even if it’s only this. Here. Now. One final memory. Hearing the rumble of your voice nearby, as quiet as a stream but just as capable of reshaping the world.

And if my lastfirstmemory is of saving you?

Then I’ll die happy.

Because I feel the blood leaving. Emptying like an overturned glass. And I don’t care. I want you to have all of it, all of me, because it will all be worth it to know that I found you, I looked in your eyes, and I saw every answer to every question a man could ask.

Sabine, I’m not afraid to die.

Not if it’s for you.

Chapter 36

Sabine

Artain points the arrow at the one target he knows will break my soul—Basten.

The fire burning in the pit of my stomach catches and spreads until I feel like I’m wildfire itself, ready to rip through the world and leave nothing but ash in my wake. The times I’ve felt this angry before were the ones when I slipped into the minds of animals to force them to do my bidding.

And now? I’m not working with birds and mice. Not even tigers.

I have amonoceros—and he could burn down the world.

My vision sharpens as I slide my hand along Tòrr’s neck, feeling his strong pulse as my own changes its rhythm to match.

I’ll do it.

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