Page 170 of Claimed In Darkness

"Zephiran—"

"No."

It’s not a word.

It’s a fucking declaration.

A vow.

He is not letting me go even if it destroys him.

Even if it means doing something neither of us will come back from.

I exhale slowly.

I have nothing left.

No way to tell him what he means to me.

So I do the only thing I can.

I kiss him.

One last time.

One last breath.

One last moment before the dark takes me.

I feel it.

The pull.

The cold.

The end.

And as I fade and the world tilts and blurs?—

As my body stops?—

I hear him scream my name.

Then there is nothing.

58

ZEPHIRAN

She is gone and I do not accept it.

The world is silent, the battle forgotten, the blood beneath my knees no longer hers but mine.

I am breaking as I have already lost so fucking much.

Her body in my arms is still warm. There’s a tiny, miniscule warmth radiating from her chest.

That’s what shatters me most.

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