Sylas holds my face between his rough hands, pressing his forehead against mine. I place my palm against his racing heart. Finally, his breathing steadies.
“Corvi, if you ever do that again, I will drag you back from the Underworld and kill you myself.”
“I’d haunt you,” I whisper.
He wraps me tighter in the safety of his arms, and my heart beats to the sound of his. We’re home, it seems to say. And I agree. Sylasismy home.
“I should never have left you,” he says softly, pulling back to look at me. “I’m sorry—”
“Sylas.” I push away from him, my eyes narrowing at his bare neck. “Where is Raiek?”
His gaze flicks to my collarbone, but he doesn’t answer me. I scramble to a sitting position, clutching my chest as I look down.
The Imortalis loops around my neck, his head resting at the start of my left shoulder, and his tail stopping at the top of my breastbone. His golden scales glow under the bright light of the full moon.
“Take him back,” I utter.
Does Sylas even remember how to be mortal? He had had Raiek for only five months, but I doubt he’ll shake the recklessness that the Imortalis brought him.
“Raiek is yours.” He helps me up.
He can’t possibly mean that. The Imortalis is his ancestor’s aspier, and I… I stop my spiral. He saved me, like his mother saved his father, like his father saved him. He sacrificed his immortality forme.
“What happens if I take him off?” I ask.
When he doesn’t reply, I step in front of him, lifting my head, forcing him to look at me. Gods, his face is a mess, temple bloody, cheekbone swollen, lips busted. His eyes darken, a frown worrying at his eyebrows as his eyes trail down the length of my body. Even after giving me the Imortalis, he’s still making sure I’m okay. And Gods, I am in love with him.
I reach for his cheek, hesitating. He catches my hand, presses a kiss to my fingers, and whispers, “I don’t want to find out.”
“But—” I protest.
“Vi.” He lowers my hand, his voice firmer than before. “With Raiek, you are invincible; his magic grants you unlimited lifeblood. And now that Grimm no longer has Faro’s Cuff, we may have a chance against him.”
His eyes search mine for hope, but I don’t know what to give him. I hate this magic too much to cultivate it. I’ve always hated it. It cost me my parents, Olivia, and Lyria; and now it might cost me the man I love.
“The magic wasn’t me,” I say. “It was Ysenia.” I look around. “Where’s Grimm?”
As I speak his name, a tall man in his late twenties, with dark hair and eyes as deep as the forest surrounding us, walks toward us from the cottage. He looks at me, and I’m paralyzed. Death doesn’t scare me as much as the man fiddling with a brass cuff as he stops a few feet away from us. It’s neither mine nor Ysenia’s, so he must’ve gotten it from one of the poachers in the cottage.
“I knew you were different, darling Viola.” Grimm spreads his arms wide. “I’ve always known. Crossmages are, after all, the backbone of our world.” His eyes fall to Raiek. “Do you know the things we could do together with the Imortalis?”
“The only thing we’ll do together is ensure your death, Grimm,” I reply. Without Faro’s Cuff, he is no longer immortal. If we strike fast, he can die.
Before we can even order the aspiers, Scar slithers to the ground. Raikuuncoils but doesn’t follow her. Instead, he narrows his eyes at Grimm, then hisses at Sylas.
Grimm curls his fingers, and a skeletal hand rises from the ground, grabbing Scar, pinning her in place. Raiku hisses but still doesn’t move.
Grimm laughs. “I am a reader-whisperer, darling. Nothing you do will ever surprise me.”
I scoff. He didn’t see Ysenia coming—Lorne’s magic was probably not strong enough—but I’m not about to antagonize him. Sylas is no longer immortal, and I don’t have a cuff to use my death magic.
“A fool, after all.” He flicks his wrist, and Scar flies across the clearing, past us, and lands against a tree. Then his eyes trail to Sylas, and a slow, sinister cackle trickles from his mouth. “When I left her for dead outside her room, I thought you’d give her the aspier then.”
My throat bobs.Thisis why he didn’t kill me. He never wanted me dead, because heknewSylas would come for me. Heknewhe would save me with Raiek.
“Sylas, run.” My words come out as cold as my insides.
“I’m not going anywhere, Vi.” He laces his fingers through mine, his grip tight with apologies and promises. I glance at him, and he returns my gaze with conviction. Gods, I love him, but if he doesn’t leave, hewilldie.