He stared at me, his jaw tight, his breath uneven.For a heartbeat, I thought I’d lost him—that the weight of my betrayal had driven him beyond reach.
But then...his hand closed around mine.
Not in anger.
In love.
His arms pulled me against him with a fierce urgency, holding me as if letting go would break us both.I collapsed into him, the sob rising from my chest before I could stop it.The tears I had held back for so long finally spilled, soaking into his shoulder as he held me tighter, grounding me, anchoring me to him.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered repeatedly, my voice raw, breaking.“I’m so sorry.”
He buried his face in my hair, his voice low and rough.“I forgive you...I forgive you, Elizabeth.”
I clung to him, my body trembling with release, with grief, with the crushing relief of not having lost him.His hands slid over my back, reassuring and warm, holding the shattered pieces of me together.
For the first time in years, I let myself fall apart.And he held me through it all.
But then?—
A chill swept through the air like a curse.
The flame beneath the cauldron sputtered violently.The shadows in the room seemed to recoil, then twist unnaturally, crawling along the walls like serpents.Amir stiffened in my arms, his breath catching—shallow and strained.Slowly, he turned his head.
I followed his gaze, and my blood ran cold.
A figure stood in the doorway, tall and cloaked in darkness that seemed to breathe—alive, pulsing with power.His face was pale, vicious, and cruel, with a smile that cut like a wound freshly opened.And his eyes—cold, bottomless, ancient—locked onto mine, and I knew… he was here for me.
Salvatore.
He was the same man I saw all those years ago when he murdered my father in his wheelchair.
His voice coiled through the air, smooth and poisonous.“Now this...this is touching.I do love a good reunion.”
My heart plummeted.
The air grew thick and suffocating, and the light in the room dimmed beneath the weight of his presence.The shadows obeyed him, curling toward him as they worshipped him.
Amir stepped in front of me instantly, his body shielding mine.Tension radiated from him like fire.
But I couldn’t move.
I couldn’t breathe.
He had felt the alchemy...
He had followed the trail...
And now, he was here.
The nightmare we had fought so hard to avoid had come to our doorstep.
And it had Salvatore’s face.
Salvatore consumed the room like a storm swallowing light, devouring the air.Shadows crawled to him, wrapped around his form like living things—servants to their master.
Amir’s hand gripped mine tightly, his other still poised on his blade, but I could feel the shift in him—the tension, the fury, the protective desperation.His body was a shield, but I saw the flicker of something else in his eyes—recognition.Fear.
“We have to go,” Amir muttered, his voice low and urgent.He grabbed me by the waist, pulling me toward him.“Hold on to me.”
