Tears streamed down her face now. “Iknew.Gods, Iknew.But I didn’t want to believe it.”
“I know.” His voice cracked. “That’s why I didn’t tell you. Because I needed you to fight with hope, not grief.”
She shook her head violently. “There has to be another way?—”
“There’s not.” He smiled. Soft. Sad. “You don’t get it, Sera. For the first time in my life… I’m doing something thatmatters.For someone that matters.”
She tried to hold him, but he stepped back.
The Hollowborn surged again.
Cassian turned toward them, flames erupting from his skin.
“Run,” he said.
“Screw you,” she choked.
“Run—please.”
Cassian stood between her and the darkness, the stormfire in him igniting to its fullest. And as the last of her light disappeared from view?—
He closed his eyes and let go.
TWENTY-SEVEN
SERAPHINE
She didn’t remember screaming.
She remembered the momentbefore—Cassian’s back turned, fire roaring from his skin as the Hollowborn closed in.
She remembered the way he moved like he’d already made peace with it. Like he’dchosenit.
He fell. And everything broke.
His body hit the stone like it had been cut from the sky. One moment fire, the next—nothing.
The Hollowborn descended on him like carrion. That was when the scream tore from her throat.
Raw. Animal. Grief didn’t wait. Itdevoured.
She sprinted toward him, but the shadows moved faster. Wrapped around him like claws, mouths gaping, hissing with stolen breath.
“NO!”
She dropped to her knees ten paces too far, the weight of it crushing her.
It didn’t feel real.
Couldn’t.
She had survived everything—theyhad. Only for this? To watch him be swallowed by the thing they were fighting to destroy?
Her hands slammed into the ground. And the flame answered. Not Whitefire. Not magic.Blood.
The shift came without warning, bones cracking, muscles tearing, fire ripping from her spine like wings forged in pain. Her body blurred, blurred until there was onlylight—a woman wrapped in dragonsong and grief and rage.
The fire burst from her like a supernova. The blast was cataclysmic.
