Page 85 of Too Dangerous To Die

No.

Herthroat.

Medea howls.

Not like a woman.

Like athingbeing cast out of its host for the last time.

I feel her claws dig into my mind, her fury lashing every part of me she can still touch. But she’s unraveling. The gate is closing. The tether is gone.

“You were mine!”she shrieks.“You were made from my rib! My fire!”

I dig in—not with power—but with memory.

My mother’s lullaby.

Rhaegar’s hand in mine beneath the ruins.

My name.

Nora.

Not Medea.

Never again.

I collapseto the floor as she rips free.

The air turns sharp, wild, the magic shattering like glass. I feel my body convulse. My pulse stutters and then returns. My fingers twitch.

I’m me again.

And I can’t stop shaking.

Rhaegar isbeside me in an instant, arms wrapped tight around me, his forehead pressed to mine. His breath comes in sharp, shallow bursts.

“Nora,” he whispers. “You came back.”

I try to answer, but the words catch in my throat. Instead, I reach up and place a hand over his, grounding myself in the weight of him. Therealnessof him.

“I never left,” I rasp. “Not really.”

He exhales shakily, pulling me closer until I feel his pulse against my chest, steady and alive.

“She tried to—” he chokes on the rest. Doesn’t finish it.

“I know.”

And I do.

I felt it.

The way she used me. The way shetouchedhim with my hands. Poisoned him with promises I’d never make.

But he didn’t choose her.

He chose me.

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