Page 153 of Kingdom of Chaos
“What? No,” I say, shaking my head, struggling to grasp everything she’s saying, not wanting to believe that in order to save his life I have to leave him.
That can’t be the only way. It’s too cruel. We just found each other. I can’t lose him now.
“There has to be another way to sever the connection.”
Imogen starts to respond, but then cuts herself off. Pressing her lips together, she shakes her head. “There’s not,” she says, but the flash of hesitation in her eyes makes me doubt her.
“What is it?”
She shakes her head again. “There may be another way to sever the connection, but we don’t have time to figure it out. Talon may only have minutes left. Right now, if you want to save him, this is the only way.”
My heart feels like it’s being shredded. I’d do anything to save Talon, including leaving him forever, but the thought of that is almost too painful to consider. But I can’t just let him die.
“Freckles,” Talon says, his voice weak and hollow.
I look down at him, my vision blurred with unshed tears.
“It’s going to be okay,” he assures me, and I know that’s a lie.
If I have to leave him, or he dies, it will never be okay again.
“You’ll have your family and friends. And you’ll have him,” he says, nodding over to where Becks is collecting pieces of Shadow Striker.
I shake my head, too wrecked to even voice my denial.
I don’t want Becks, not like I used to. I wanthim.
Talon lifts a shaky hand and gently brushes my hair behind my ear, his fingers grazing the shell in the way he always does, bringing a fresh ache to my chest.
“You still have feelings for him. Don’t deny it.”
I open my mouth to do just that, but he’s right. Becks is still in my heart. I’ve loved him for so long, it’s confusing to separate romantic love from the deep care and affection I have for him. In truth, regardless of what happens in the future, Becks will probably always be a part of me.
But what I have with Talon is different. Deeper. It blows past the first-love layer of my heart, burrowing down into the center of my soul and rooting there. My love for him, and his for me,started as a seed that bloomed, branching out through every part of me until there was no space left for anyone else.
“It’s good,” Talon says, his voice thin but certain. “If we can’t be together, I want to know that you have someone. A partner who cares and loves you as much as I do.”
“If it’s not you, it’s not anyone,” I say, the words broken through sobs.
Talon just smiles, as if to say I think that now but he knows it will change.
He’s wrong. It won’t.
Even though Becks was my first love, Talon was supposed to be my forever love. It’s not the same. Becks can’t just be a stand-in for Talon. That’s not fair to him, or me, or any of us.
“Get up,” Imogen orders, and when I look up at her, she’s holding a bundle of Shadow Striker shards in some sort of cloth someone must have ripped from their shirt.
“You have to do this now or it’s going to be too late.”
I shake my head. “I don’t know how to open a portal. I didn’t even really do anything before. It just happened. I don’t have any magic anymore.”
“You have to at least try,” she says.
Talon cups the side of my face, his hand trembling, and I snap my gaze back to him. “I believe in you, Freckles. You can do this. And this might help.” He hands me the tamalite ring that had been on his finger.
As I take it, the threads shimmer faintly between us, pulsing like they’re waiting.
With a deep, shuddering breath, I close the ring in my fist. Letting go of Talon, I rise to my feet, legs shaking beneath me. As I accept the cloth bundle of shards from Imogen, dropping the ring in with them, an unexpected warmth spreads through my palms, as if the remnants of the blade still hum with energy.I can feel Talon’s gaze on me, a silent tether pulling me back to him.
