Anyone would trade a lifetime of misery for a moment of bliss.
I lay my hand across her sternum, feeling the steady thrum of her heart against my palm. Then I sneak my finger up to touch her neck.
Blaise’s eyes snap open, and she attacks.
Blaise’s fangs shoot out from her gums as she lunges for my neck.
She’s faster, but I already have her in my grasp.
All it takes is a slight maneuver of my hand. My fingers brush her skin, and then she’s mine.
Blaise’s body goes limp as my magic flows through her, the magic I draw from every peaceful memory I have.
Reading silently in the library with Asha’s family. Falling asleep with Asha by my side at night, her body tucked into my chest. The smile on my wife’s face as she plays with Nagivv.
I herd the feelings, then forward them to Blaise, soothing her wild, tumultuous rage until her eyes close and sleep descends upon her.
Once she stills, I shove my hand into her chest.
Bones crack and splay as my fingers close around Blaise’s heart.
It’s much colder than I might have imagined a beating heart to be, but this only serves to ensure my decision is the right one.
Blaise isn’t truly alive, not as Asha will be.
Still, I whisper an apology to her.
I think in a different life, we might have been friends.
“Kiran,” someone cries, someone who’s barreling toward me. “Kiran, stop!” Evander launches himself from a raised cliff in the wall, his fall cracking stone as he lands, still sprinting toward me. I’m not sure how he found us, but I don’t have time for such questions.
You mustn’t stop, you must do it now. The boy wants the heart for himself, to raise his brother, whispers the shadow.
“Kiran, it’s a trap. She’s trying to trick you.” Evander skids to a stop, his eyes going wide as his gaze slips.
“Kiran, please,” Evander whispers, his gaze transfixed on my hand, plunged into Blaise’s chest cavity. “Please. You’re not a monster. I don’t know what this creature is promising you, but whatever the promise is, it’s not real. Blaise, though? Blaise is real, and if you rip her heart out, you won’t be able to bring her back.”
Your wife or the night stalker? whispers the voice. Who do you choose?
I offer an apologetic look to Evander. “I can’t…” I whisper. “I can’t be without her.”
Something akin to understanding dawns on Evander’s face. “It’s offering to make Asha immortal.” Evander nods, then swallows, sweat pouring down his face. “Of course it is. It told me I could bring my brother back. It’s telling us exactly what it thinks we want to hear.”
“Maybe it can do both.” My hands tremble now, and it’s getting harder to keep Blaise calm when her body wants nothing more than to send her into a flight of panic.
“No, Kiran,” Evander says. “It can’t bring back the dead. You know that. You know that’s crazy.”
“You wouldn’t do it, even for him? Even for your brother?” I ask, something in my mind knocking like it wants to be let out. I try to quash the noise, because it’s making it difficult to focus.
“It’s in your head,” Evander insists. “You wouldn’t do this. It’s trying to control you, and you can’t let it.”
“I can’t let her die,” I whisper, then snap my gaze back up to Evander. “Would you let Ellie die? She could have it too, you know—immortality.”
Evander’s face pales, but then he glances at Blaise and holds his ground.
“Ellie would never forgive me if I murdered for her. Would Asha forgive you?”
Would Asha forgive me?
She’s pardoned me of so much more than I’d imagined was forgivable. She would. Asha will forgive me.
But she won’t understand.
She’ll do what she always does and blame herself. She’ll take Blaise’s death on as if it were her own.
If I kill Blaise, Asha will spend the rest of her immortal existence mourning her.
Just then, something clicks in my mind, and it’s like a door being slammed open, the rest of my consciousness freed to flood back in.
My hand is still closed around Blaise’s heart.
Horror overcomes me, and I uncurl my fingers, extracting my hand from her chest before I can do any more damage.
Something screams, and Evander covers his ears. It takes me a moment to realize I have, too.
Shadows swirl about the room, encompassing us, and the air is sucked from my lungs. The dark tendrils shoot into Evander’s nose and mouth, and I’m brought back to the image of Calias drowning Asha and Fin.
No, no, no.
