Malice nods, his eyes glossing as he continues gazing into the shadows. Slowly, he raises his arm, gesturing to that spot with a long, clawed finger. “It’s over there.”

“Where?” Fenryr demands, huffing an irritated sigh. “We can’t see shit.”

“You can’t see it?” Malice whispers, his voice cracking heavily. “You can’t hear it?”

“I can’t hear anything other than Roark’s heavy breathing,” Cyprien grumbles, taking a step in the direction Malice is pointing. “How about you just tell me when I’m getting warmer and colder? We’ll find it, eventually.”

“No.” Malice whips his head to Cyprien with a snarl, stopping him from taking another step. “It’s mine. It’s beating—screaming—for me.”

Cyprien sighs, rolling his eyes. “So dramatic. Okay, go and get it then.”

Malice blinks, the corners of his good eye flickering with dark shadows. “Are you ready, then?”

“Ready for…?”

“The end,” he murmurs, his gaze flicking to Dagny’s for the briefest moment. “Once I retrieve the heart… all of us will cease to be.”

Cyprien whimpers, stumbling a step back as he looks at Malice with wide eyes. “I didn’t know it would be right away…”

“We were never supposed to live for long,” Malice mutters, his mouth pinching into a thin white line as he gazes into the dark once more. “If Varys hadn’t forgotten to put the heart back in his haste and panic… we likely would have only lived for a few moments before being threaded back into a singular being. So yes, it will be right away.”

“It’s okay, Cyprien,” Lir says, his voice soft and coaxing as he attempts to pace a hand on his shoulder. Cyprien jerks away with a snarl, his eyes gleaming with a rare sheen of sadness.

“I don’t… I’m not ready to leave her,” he whispers, his expression crumbling as he gazes at his mate. “I thought we would have a little more time.”

“Then you deluded yourself.” Malice’s jaw sets as he glares at Cyprien with disdain. “Of course, I should have expected it from such a whiny little worm.”

“There’s no need to be so cruel to him,” Lir growls, his eyes narrowing on Malice’s profile. “Just because you can’t express your sadness in a healthy way doesn’t mean you get to torment him.”

“It’s not my fault he can’t accept reality!” Malice turns on Lir with a snarl, a curtain of rage falling over his expression as he breaks. “I had to accept it, and no one felt sorry for me! No one cried for me, no one comforted me, no one fucking cared. And you expect me to stand here and coddle him when this is a reality we’ve all known for years.”