Page 158 of Savage Crown

As if the magic within it has been spent, drained, consumed.

I don’t know what the price was.

Not fully.

But I can feel it.

The empty space in my chest where something used to be.

Something I can never get back.

Seraphina stirs.

Her fingers twitch against my ribs.

A breath escapes her lips, slow, uneven.

She turns toward me, blinking too slowly, her lashes heavy as she wakes.

And when she looks at me?—

I see it.

The change.

Her eyes are the same.

But not quite.

A shade darker, deeper—like there is something else beneath them, something ancient, something lingering.

Her lips part, her voice low, husky.

"You're staring."

I don't answer.

I can't.

My chest is too tight, my mind racing too fast.

I realize?—

She isn't breathing.

A second passes.

Then another.

Still, no inhale.

No rise in her chest.

No sound of breath pulling into her lungs.

Then—

A slow exhale.

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