I kiss him. His lips are cool. Still. He doesn’t kiss me back.
My tears smear between us, my nose pressed awkwardly to his. I’m a mess. A snotty, broken, ugly mess, and I don’t care. I want him to feel me. Hear me. Need me.
I need him.
And I realise—suddenly, painfully—what this is. What he did. What the prince did for Dawson. He gave him his life.
His life force. Piece by piece, breath by breath, he kept his mate alive.
That’s what I need to do.
I pull back, frantic, scanning the space as if I’ll find instructions etched into the stone, a glowing how-to manual hovering in the air.
Nothing. No answers. Just Kael. Pale. Still.
Too still.
I crawl over him, straddling his body, lowering myself carefully so I don’t cause more damage. My arms curl around him, my hands splayed across his ribs and the back of his neck. I press my forehead to his, squeezing my eyes shut.
“Come back to me,” I whisper, trembling. “Take what you need. Take everything.” My heart thrums wildly in my chest. I imagine that rhythm sinking into him, like a thread. A rope. Something real.
“I give it to you,” I breathe. “All of it. Whatever it takes. My life, my strength, my soul—Kael, I’m yours. Always.”
The bond flares. Hard.
A white-hot light explodes behind my eyes. Energy surges through me like a tidal wave. The burn is instant and blinding, my body locking up, like something ancient has snapped into place and is demanding I surrender.
I feel it leave me. My life. Thread by thread, it flows from me into him. I’m shaking, gasping, my lungs struggling for air. My pulse slows, my thoughts start to drift—soft, quiet.
It’s working. I think. Maybe.
Kael’s markings pulse once, faintly. His lips part. A breath escapes him.
My body collapses. My mind unravels. I sink into darkness, the last thought in my head not fear, not regret?—
Just love.
“Come back to me.”
CHAPTER
EIGHTEEN
I waketo heat and strong arms. It’s not an unfamiliar position—one I’ve been in before—but this time, there’s no calm, no bliss. Just panic. I jolt, adrenaline punching through me as I try to sit up?—
—but the arms around me are too strong.
“Sonny.” Kael’s voice is soft, hoarse, but real.
My breath hitches.
“You saved me,” he whispers, and there’s so much rawness in those three words that my eyes sting before I even realise I’m crying.
“I saved us,” I murmur, burying my face into his neck, clutching at him like he might disappear again. “Don’t ever do that again, you arsehole.”
He chuckles—fuckingchuckles—and kisses the top of my head, loosening his grip just enough for me to sit up and grab his face. My lips crash to his. The kiss is frantic, possessive, a jumbled mess of teeth and desperation, and when our bond surges to life again, I don’t even bother with words.
“I love you. I want you. I’m not losing you again.”
