“Wildfire…” The rest of my sentence is cut off by the rattling cough that explodes from my throat, filling my mouth with a warm, metallic liquid that flows past my lips and dribbles down my chin.

“Malice,” Dagny chokes, her eyes focused on the space where my heart should be. “Your chest…”

I blink slowly, not understanding why she sounds so afraid. I tip my chin downward, surprised to find a gaping, fist-sized hole that wasn’t there a minute ago. “Huh…” I shrug, picking my head back up with a small chuckle that causes more blood to flow down my chin. “It’s not as bad as it looks…”

Another weak cough rattles between my ribs, and blood splatters across Dagny’s face, coating her pretty skin and getting in her eyes. “Oh shit… my bad…”

I go to say something else, but before I can get one more word out, Slaine wraps his hands around my shoulders and yanks me off Dagny, an irritated growl rumbling deep in his throat.

He throws me to the ground and crouches by my head, his eyes narrowed in a hateful glare. “I was going to kill you after her, but I suppose it makes no difference if you’re first.”

I gaze deep into Slaine’s eyes, amusement blooming in the pit of my stomach. And then, suddenly, I can’t hold it in any longer.

Slaine jerks back, his mouth pulling into a deep frown as the sounds of my laughter peel through the air. “The fuck is so funny? You’re going to die, demon. Do you not realize that?”

I place my hand on my stomach, my eyes squinting closed as more laughter howls from my open mouth.

“The fuck are you so happy about?”

With a chuckle still rumbling in my chest, I open my eyes, staring deep into Slaine’s soul as I raise a trembling fist, uncurling my fingers one by one—revealing the small, golden, still beating heart in the center of my palm.

“This is.”

34. Dagny

34

Dagny

I don’t know how he managed to retrieve it, or when, but the beating, golden artifact sitting in the center of Malice’s palm is unmistakably a heart. Abaddon’s heart. My mouth opens in a silent scream as Malice draws the organ to the hole in his chest, depositing the pulsing heart deep within his shattered rib cage, sealing his fate.