Page 152 of Steel Heart Iron Claws

My hands paw uselessly at the knife hilt at my chest. I stagger backward a step. My knees buckle from the pain, and I fall?—

—fall—

—into Basten’s arms as he drops to one knee to sweep me up in his arms. Catching me, as he always catches me.

“Sabine!” He slowly lowers me to the floor and shakes me. “Sabine! No—for all that is holy,no!”

His eyes are so wide with horror that I can see the whites all around. A drip of sweat lands on my face—or maybe it’s his tears. His lips tremble as his head rocks back and forth, back and forth.

“B—Basten…” I stammer.

“No!” He hugs me, his lips caressing my temple, his fingers knitting in my hair. “Sabine, don’t leave me. Not again. It nearly killed me the first time. I won’t survive it again. You hear me?” He pulls back, his eyes dark with fear. “I love you. I loved you when I didn’t even know you. And now that you’re here, real and warm in my arms, I can’t let you go. Not now, not ever. Please, Sabine. I don’t know how to be without you, and I don’t want to learn. Don’t leave me.”

My vision goes hazy as darkness creeps over me.

“Basten,” I whisper.

I feel it again—my soul slipping free. Hovering above my physical body while it watches Basten sob against my cheek. He holds me so tightly his knuckles blanch. He begs in a shallow breath for me not to go.

The same moon,I try to tell him.We’ll always see the same moon.

But the darkness swallows me whole before I can.

Chapter 41

Basten

They killed my little violet.

It can’t be real. This beautiful girl in my arms whose pulse is painfully absent. Whose lungs don’t rise and fall. Whose half-open eyes don’t blink.

A roar builds inside my skull.

This can’t fucking bereal.

A visceral pain slams into my chest. My jaw locks. My muscles clench so tightly that I fear they might snap, but I don’t care. I want the pain. I need it. The pain drowns out the bottomless pit of fear that yawns at the edge of my vision. There are few things in my life that have scared me.

Losing Sabine?

This fucking blows them all away.

My skin burns hot as the churning rage inside me comes to a boil, ready to erupt and scorch the earth around me until Drahallen Hall is nothing but a pile of steaming rubble. The fae were worried about Tòrr bringing this place to the ground? Wait untilIunleash everything I’m capable of. I might be human, but I have nothing to lose.

And the only thing now I want to gain?

Payback.

Someone is going to die for this. For killing my little violet. Payback won’t bring her back, I know, but it will damn sure answer the rage shredding up my heart.

Damn the fae.

Damn this fucking castle.

Damn every last thing in this wrecked world except for the heartbreakingly quiet girl in my arms.

An anguished cry tears from between my teeth as I howl up at the ceiling.

When my pain finally has no other place to go, I slowly lower Sabine to the floor, taking care to set her pale body down gently, and wipe a bead of splattered blood off her cheek.

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