Page 111 of A Fate of Blood and Magic
“Don’t you see,mo elma?” He huffed out a laugh. “Whether you’re in our realm or another, there is nowhere you can go where I will not follow. It may take me some time.” Another dry laugh. “But I’ll get to you.” He cupped the back ofmy head and rubbed his pinky over the nape of my neck. “You just have to be patient.”
“There is an option,” Eiran said, his dark eyes seeming to glow at his words. “I can tie your life to hers, and when she passes, so will you.”
“Yes,” Elias said.
“Elias.” Again, I said his name without knowing what else to say.
“You once decided to tie your life to mine,” he said, his palm nuzzling my face. “I’m making that same decision.”
“You’ll lose hundreds of years of life.”
And his people—our people—would lose him far too quickly as their king.
“What is the point of hundreds of years if you’re not in them?” He leaned down to kiss my nose and then my cheek. “We do this for Donnie.”
I pursed my lips, and although I knew the absoluteness of this decision would crack another fissure through my heart, I nodded. For Donnie.
Eiran’s bowed head snapped up, his eyes narrowing to something behind us. “Elias . . .”
Elias spun, and when I turned with him, I gripped his hand as a startled sob stuck in my throat.
“Dearest.” His mom shone with an unworldly vibrance I’d never witnessed in her. It wasn’t just that she shimmered in this realm, but that for the first time, I saw the true beauty she possessed.
“Mama.” The single word wobbled in the air, and I held his hand tighter. “I don’t understand.”
When he shook his head, I mirrored him. “Renee,” I pleaded.
“With my magic, I felt your anguish over losing Donnie,”she said, her attention steady on me. “I felt it when you both left our realm to this one. So I made a bargain with Death. My life for Donnie’s.”
“No,” Elias said, his tone desperate and pleading.
“I’m afraid you’ll still lose your magic,” Eiran said. “But Queen Renee has agreed to take his place in the afterlife.”
Elias’s eyes were wide, his lips parted with his refusal to accept this fate.
“I should’ve died the day my mate did,” Renee said, a desolate smile on her elegant face. “I feel like maybe I did. At least, my soul did. You’ll carry on without me, my sweet son, as you’ve done these past few months.”
“No.” He rubbed his palm against his chest.
Keeping my hand tucked in his, I turned to face Eiran.
“You can’t,” I said. “She can’t.” I faced Renee, ready to throw myself onto my knees to beg her to stay. “He still needs you. You have grandbabies on the way. You . . .”
Eiran stepped beside Renee, his black cloak draping over his tall figure while his shadows trembled on the ground around him.
“There is a price that must be paid,” Eiran said. “Before, Nalari paid the price for you in the blood she shed when she killed the humans who attacked you. One of them was destined to get away, but I took his life to spare Brenton’s. Now, in saving Donnie, Renee forfeited her life.”
Gasping, I took a retreating step back. “You didn’t tell us that. We wouldn’t have—I wouldn’t have . . . You didn’t tell us.” I stepped forward, pointing a finger at Eiran’s wide chest. “No, Eiran. Choose someone else.” I poked his chest hard. “You said I had a choice. I choose Elias. I choose his mom.” My nostrils flared as mylungs burned at my words.
I reached for the sword Eiran wore at his waist and pointed the tip against his throat.
“You can’t have her,” I said, my words coming out far calmer than I felt. “You took his dad and his uncle. You can’t keep taking when he’s not ready.”
When Eiran remained quiet, I edged the sword forward and watched the blood that trickled from the cut I made on his throat.
“Teddy.” Elias gripped my hand and forced it down.
When I let out a shuddering breath, the sword I held disappeared. Elias held my face against the palm of his hands. Beautifully haunted, violet eyes peered into me before he lowered his head to rest his forehead against mine.
