“You can’t leave me like this,” I say, the words raw, desperate. “I’ll do anything. Just stay with me.”
Someone tries to pull her from my arms—a healer, maybe—but I clutch her tighter. I can’t let her go. If I hold on long enough, she’ll wake up. She has to wake up.
“Annora.” I brush the hair from her face with trembling fingers. “Remember what you promised? You promised me that we’d build something beautiful together? You can’t break that promise.”
My vision blurs as tears spill down my cheeks. “Come back.” I kiss her face between words. “Come back. Come back. Come back. Please come back.”
But she remains still and silent in my arms.
Panic seizes me as I clutch her tighter, willing my heartbeat to somehow restart hers. Willing this to be nothing but a nightmare I’ll wake from.
But the blood soaking through my surcoat is real. The growing coldness of her skin is real.
No!
Fuck this!
I refuse to believe it. Refuse to believe she’s gone.
“Fuck!” I bring her closer, but she doesn’t wake up.
I cradle her face between my palms, my thumbs brushing over her cold cheeks. “Wake up. Please wake up.”
Her head lolls against my arm as I shift her closer. Those dark blue eyes I adore remain closed. Just yesterday those eyes sparkled as she laughed at something I said. Just yesterday.
“Remember when we first met?” I brush my lips across her forehead. “You were so angry at me. So defiant. I think I adored that defiance.”
Warriors gather around us, but I barely notice them. Not when my Annora is in my arms. My love. My life. My soul.
“You can’t do this.” I shake her shoulders again and again. “You can’t leave me.”
But she doesn’t move. Doesn’t speak. Doesn’t open those eyes I’d give anything to see again.
Fuck!
This cannot be real!
Chapter Seventy
Annora
Mist swirlsaround me as my thoughts scatter like leaves caught in an autumn wind.
Wasn’t I just...
Didn’t I...
Where’s Jasce…
I need Jasce!
A figure emerges from the haze, raven-haired with a tattoo beneath her mouth.
Mazaline.
Jasce’s mother.
“You’re not finished,” she says, her voice echoing, as if she’s standing in a cave. Maybe she is. Maybe we both are.
