His name left my lips in a whisper, barely more than a breath.
My knees hit the cold stone floor, the impact jarring but insignificant compared to the pain tearing through my chest.He was a ruin before me—bruised, broken, reduced to a mere shadow of the man I knew.
I gathered his battered hands in mine, holding onto him as if I could tether him back to life.
“Amir, I shouldn’t have left you yesterday.I should have come sooner.”
His eyelids fluttered, his breath shuddering from his lips.“Elizabeth… why did you return?”
“Shhh,” I hushed him, brushing damp hair from his fevered forehead.My fingers trembled against his clammy skin.“My father is under a sleeping draught.He won’t know.”
I reached for the vials I had spent the night crafting—my weapons of salvation, my last defiance against the cruelty that had left him in this state.
I administered them individually; each sip met with a wince, and each swallow a battle.His resilience, even now, left me breathless.
“Rest now,” I murmured, pressing a cool cloth against his burning skin.“Let these mend what cruelty has tried to break.”
His eyes drifted closed.For a moment, peace.
And then?—
His eyes snapped open.
Torches flickered, their unsteady glow casting jagged shadows across the torment carved into his face.
His breathing came fast, ragged, his fingers curling into fists.A war waged within him—against the pain, against me.
And then, in a voice hoarse with suffering and something far worse—regret—he rasped, “I was foolish to fall in love with you.”
The words sliced through me.
“You weakened me,” he gasped, every syllable wrought from agony as if each one tore from his soul.“You brought me to my knees.I should never have let you in.”
A choked sob clawed its way up my throat.
“No, no,” I whispered, my hands trembling as they cradled his face as if I could hold him together through sheer will alone.
“You can’t mean that.I am your strength, Amir.Not your weakness.”
His head jerked, shaking violently as though trying to expel some terrible, unbearable thought.“No,” he croaked, his voice a raw wound.“You must leave this place.You must go to the Americas, my love.It’s safer there than here.The only way to escape the grasp of the Timehunters.”
His eyes held me captive, desperate.
“Pack your bags and go with Mary,” he demanded, his eyes smoldering with something deeper than pain—dread and resignation.“Leave me to face this nightmare alone.”
His plea cut through me sharper than any blade.
“I won’t leave you,” I hissed, my voice like a drawn wire, trembling.
“I will recreate the Noctyss poison.I will bring it to the masquerade.I will annihilate them all.They will not win.They will not break you.”
A shudder racked his body, but it wasn’t pain that caused it.It was something darker.Something festering deep inside him.
“You were my downfall,” he growled through clenched teeth.“My one weakness.”
The words struck like a whip, carving into me, but I did not waver.
“I promised we would destroy them together,” I countered, my fingers finding his, gripping them tight despite the tremors agonizing me.
