It was so sudden and brutal that I thought she had broken it. Her mouth opened in a silent scream at first, and then the sound hit, echoing through the battered remains of the Great Room. The cry that tore from her throat was so unnerving. My heart shattered into a thousand razor-edged pieces sharper than any crystal I had created or controlled today at the sound. It broke something inside me that could never be put back together whole again.
“Quinn!” I screamed.
Only Quinn’s screams answered in return.
My dragon roared within me. She was frantic and pacing. My scales rippled, and she rammed herself against my skin. She wanted to surface. She wanted out. She wanted to stop this. But, she couldn’t. There was nothing either one of us could do. This was the only way to bring Quinn back to us. Even if every part of me begged for it to be over.
“I know, I know,” Izzy cooed like a doting mother to her child who had just had a nightmare. I wasn’t sure if she was talking to me or Quinn. “I know it hurts. Just a little longer. Just a little longer.”
The veins in Quinn’s neck stood out against her pale skin. Her body shook violently. Her legs kicked. Her hands clawed at the hardwood. Her daggers long dropped and forgotten, her hands sought something—anything—to hold onto. I immediately gave her my hand, brought both of our hands close to my heart, and squeezed.
I hated it.
I hated all of it.
Every twitch. Every scream. Every shot of agony coursing through her body. Every second where I had to sit there and watch while the love of my life writhed like lightning had struck her from the inside out. It was a torture of its own design.
Just when I thought I couldn’t take any more, the smoke began to rise from her.
It wasn’t like that of an incense or cigarette. No, this smoke bled from her pores like ink, thick and swirling. It was so dark red that it looked black. It left her like a demon being exorcised from its host. Rolling from her body like steam, the smoke hissed as it slithered out of Quinn’s being. The wisps of blood magic curled away into nothingness, dissipating into the air, undone by the fever Izzy had conjured. Izzy moved her hand away to allow it all to flow from Quinn.
When it was all gone, just as abruptly as it began, Quinn’s screaming stopped. Her whole body was bathed in sweat. Each of her wounds from Cooper’s bullets closed, leaving her skin unblemished aside from the blood left behind. A flush crept back into her cheeks. There was a tremor in her lashes. Her chest rose once sharply. Then, it fell measuredly and completely like it was emptying everything from her.
I couldn’t breathe.
I couldn’t move.
Was this it?
Was this the end?
Was she?—?
No.
Please be lying.
Please don’t let her be?—
Finally, Quinn took a shaky breath.
Her eyes fluttered open.
I was rewarded with gold.
Gold like the finest treasure that I wanted to hoard all to myself for no one to ever see again.
Gold like the finest dessert that money could ask for, that was only available for one night at the most expensive restaurant in town and then never made again.
Gold like her fire that kept me warm and going even through my darkest moments.
My Quinn’s eyes were back. The blood-tint was gone. There was no more red glaze with the madness of Lilah’s magic.
There was just Quinn.
TherealQuinn.
MyQuinn.
