“No,” I said, my vision bleeding purple at the edges, my fangs bared in a desperate attempt at intimidation. “Save him. It was your poison that did this. Only you can save him.”

Zadok eyelids shuttered, and he tentatively reached out. I rejected his offer of placation. “I… I did everything I could,” he said. No, no, no, that’s not true. It can’t be true. “The poison had already reached his heart.”

I shook my head. “He can’t. I can still feel him, he’s still in there.”

“I’m sorry.”

Those words were a knife in my chest. I couldn’t catch a breath with my heart hammering against my ribcage. I blinked, numb and dazed, barely aware of the pain shooting through my knees as I hit the floor. Distantly, there was a shuffle of footfalls before the door creaked closed behind me, but I didn’t turn around. I couldn’t shift my gaze from my mate. My sweet mate.

I scooped his limp body into my arms, cradled him, combed my fingers through his silken mane. My lips hovered over his lax mouth before closing the gap, drifting to his cold cheeks, his closed eyelids, kissing every inch of his face. His beautiful face. Our bond had dimmed, gradually fading to barely a phantom whisper. The emptiness already looming.

“Don’t leave me.” I rocked forward, pressing my nose to his throat and inhaling that familiar scent beneath the smoke. “You can’t leave me.”

It was all my fault.

He had warned me of his concerns, and I had reassured him that nothing would happen. I should have listened. I should have known what my father was capable of after everything he had already done. He was full of hatred, obsessed with purity, and yet I was so adamant that he wouldn’t come for my mate. For us. Why had I expected him to remain stoic? To grin and bear his bias like a fair leader for the sake of peace. I was an arrogant fool, and I’d paid the price.

I may as well have poured the poison down Luca’s throat myself.

Time ticked by, bringing no solace. I lowered Luca, my precious Luca, onto the bed, tucking him in and laying his arms over his belly. I could imagine he was in a deep and peaceful sleep, my longing to see his chest rise and fall feeding the hopeful mirage. With trembling fingers, I brushed his curls behind his ear, my touch trailing over the valley of his throat, to the dip above his pulse.

Still. Silent.

Another tear rolled down my cheek, and fury surged in my gut, the background fading into the abyss. I leaned over him, planting one last kiss on his cold temple. “You’ll have his head, my heart. I swear it.”