Cassian looked up. “You shouldn’t have.”
“I had to.”
“I was already gone?—”
“You weren’t.” Her voice cracked. “Younever were.I felt you. Even through the fire. Even through the Hollow. Ifelt you.”
He swallowed hard. “I don’t know what I am now.”
She leaned closer. “You’remine.That’s enough.”
He wanted to believe her. But something had changed.
He didn’t feel Hollowed. Not exactly. But part of the Veil hadstuck.Clung to him. Pulled something from him and left something else behind.
He wasn’t just fire anymore. He was fireandshadow.
He was Drakar blood and Hollow echo.
He was a weapon reforged in sacrifice.
“I saw something,” he murmured, barely above a whisper.
Seraphine stilled.
“In the dark. When it took me. A place where everything was memory. Where the Hollow fed not just on power—but onlove.Onyou.”
Her breath caught.
“I heard your name. Over and over. Like it was trying to pull me back. But not toyou.Touseme.”
“And you came back?”
His gaze found hers, fire dancing in his irises like candlelight fighting wind.
“I came back because you called.”
They sat in silence in the scent of blood and stone. The weight of everything unsaid pressing between them.
Seraphine touched his face again. This time, slower. Like she was still convincing herself he was real.
“You carry both now,” she said softly. “The fire. The shadow.”
“Yeah.”
“And it doesn’t scare you?”
“Itshould.” He chuckled dryly. “But it feels like I was always meant to.”
Seraphine nodded. “Then we’ll use it.”
He blinked. “We?”
“I didn’t bring you back just to watch you brood. We’ve still got a blade to reforge. And a world to keep from falling apart.”
He laughed and then winced. “Shit. Okay. But fair warning—if I randomly combust, I’m blaming your magic.”
“You can blame my foot in your ass if you try dying on me again.”
