Maybe they’d been wrong.
His breathing was ragged.
His blood was pooling beneath him.
My fear raged on. Sobs racked me from within and the painful tearing of the bond as he slipped away from me was too much to handle.
I wailed. I squeezed my fingers tighter. I gave him more blood.
A brilliant white light began to glow and for a long moment, I thought I was going to die along with him. Had the Acolyte retur
ned? Had he killed me too?
Magnar coughed.
The bond billowed outward with warmth.
His breathing deepened, each one wet and ragged and terrible. The light brightened and I pressed my head against his chest, listening to the sound of his heartbeat weakening.
My sorrow was too much.
The weight of the world crashed down on my shoulders and I bowed under its terrible force. My grief made me cower, it was so painful.
Maybe I would die from the severing of the bond. Maybe that’s how it was all going to end.
His heart slowed until…
Until it stopped.
The seconds wore on, each one a horrifying eternity that crushed me from within. I felt my love wither into excruciating agony.
I hadn’t been enough.
I sobbed so hard it was hard to breathe. My tears blinded me, and a screaming sound surrounded me.
It hardly registered that the wailing was coming from my own mouth.
I collapsed against him, not caring that his blood was stark against the paleness of my skin.
It was over.
He stopped breathing with a soul-crushing wheeze.
This couldn’t be happening.
I couldn’t take it. I’d just found him and now I’d lost him. Together, we had failed, and the Cult had won. Maybe we’d been destined to fail from the start?
It hurt so much.
My mind stopped, unable to string together any words aside from cries of pain.
This was loss.
I could only drown in it.
It was all I could feel.
I sobbed.