Page 85 of The Warlock's Kiss

Merrick fell to his knees on the top step and bent over her, scarcely aware of Danny’s presence as the boy slipped around him to kneel on Adalynn’s other side. Merrick placed his hands on her cheeks, cupping her face. Her skin was cold and clammy.

“I’m sorry, Adalynn, so sorry,” he said. “I did this.”

Her eyes, so filled with pain and tears, met his. Despite her agony, there was awareness in her gaze. She shook her head slightly, the movement so infinitesimal and erratic that he might’ve thought it involuntary if he hadn’t felt her response through their song.

“I’m making it right,” Merrick continued. “Whatever the price, I gladly pay it. You’re mine, Adalynn, and I’m not letting you go.”

She squeezed her eyes shut, forcing out fresh tears, and released a harsh, clipped breath as the tension in her body intensified.

Soul binding.

That was the only option now, the only possibility. There was no more time for research, no more time to fight back her illness; after a thousand damned years, he was out of time.

Reluctantly, he lifted his gaze from Adalynn to Danny. “Daniel, there’s a scroll on my desk, in the study. Fetch it. Quickly.”

The boy nodded rapidly and scrambled to his feet, rushing across the loft. One of Adalynn’s hands caught Merrick’s wrist. Her fingers curled around it with iron strength, digging her nails into his flesh.

Merrick looked down at her again and brushed his thumbs over her cheekbones. “Hold on, Adalynn.Hold on.”

“Merrick?” Danny’s voice quavered with fear and uncertainty.

Lifting his gaze once more, Merrick looked toward Danny—and his heart froze in place. The door to the study was open wide, and the room beyond was a charred mess—his magic from the parlor below had come up through the floor and reduced his desk to ash.

“No, no, no,” he muttered. “No!”

His heart started beating again at an impossibly fast pace, and his rapid, shallow breaths couldn’t draw enough air into his lungs. The scroll was gone. The key to saving her was gone.

Not letting go. Can’t let go. I refuse to let go.

Adalynn released a choked breath. Her back bowed and her eyes opened to slits, displaying only whites, as her body seized.

He didn’t know what to do to help her now. Didn’t know how to proceed. In his arrogance, in his foolishness, he’d both thought himself capable of changing her fate and had ruined his chance of doing so.

Merrick gritted his teeth, closed his eyes, and wrapped his arms around her, drawing her against him. She shuddered, her body rigid rather than pliant and soft like it usually was.

He was losing her.

“Iloveyou, Adalynn,” he rasped. “I cannot lose you.”

As he clung to her, he latched onto her mana song, letting it wash over him, willing it to mingle with his own, to create that beautiful duet he’d come to appreciate so much. Her tension eased, and she went limp in his hold. Her resonance flickered and sputtered…but a hint of it remained. Weak and delicate, it was barely a spark—the sort of spark that lingered briefly as a person died.

He swallowed thickly and forced his eyes open.

I don’t need the scroll.

In that moment, he realized that heknewwhat to do, that he’d always known—it was an instinct buried deep within him, deep within the primal mana at his core. He’d felt it every time they’d joined their bodies, every time their mana had sung together, every time their souls had spent precious seconds intertwined.

The scroll simply detailed something natural, something he didn’t have to understand to perform—because it was therightthing. Because she was therightone. Theonlyone.

He lifted his head to find Danny, distraught, kneeling on the floor in front of him. “Do you have your knife?”

Eyes wide, Danny shook his head.

“Get it, boy. Now! Hasten, damn you!”

Once again, Danny scrambled away, racing down the hall.

Seed. Blood. Mana.

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