Page 218 of A Liar's Twisted Tongue

“It’ll be okay.” I hold tightly onto his hand. “You’ll go on,” my voice chips.

And I’ll give up my life to save him, Aralia, Wendy, Yuki, Kai, and Lilac. Even Calista.

Suddenly, what I’d considered nothing doesn’t feel like nothing. What I have here feels like everything.

Lucian, Leiholan, Aralia, they’ve become the people who know me best and the ones who care for me most.

And I’m about to give it all up.

“May we meet again?” I whisper.

Lucian shakes his head, hard, his lips trembling while a tear rolls down his already sweat-dampened face. “No. I’m not doing this again.”

Was Mom wrong? Was I wrong? Is someone seeing me really a weakness?

Or is it a strength?

Because there is no world in which he would fight for me if he didn’t know me.

And I thought getting to know him would show me his weakness, but it’s only made losing him harder.

We fight for one another because we care. And there is no caring if there is no knowing. I guess I see that now.

I know what I didn’t before.

“May we meet again.” I lean down and kiss his shaking forehead.

“No.” His other hand rips from mine and grabs my face. “If I do anything, I will find you. I will hunt to the ends of this universe and the next to remember you again.”

I want to be worthy of this devotion.

“Maybe you should write that down,” I say, tears breaking through my front, wetting my cheeks and making it hard to speak. “So you don’t forget.” I hold onto his hand and gently put it over his chest, sliding the little wolf back into his palm.

I could’ve had it. I could’ve put my trust in someone other than myself. I could’ve had everything I’ve ever wanted, before I knew I wanted it.

I could have opened my heart.

But he puts his hand on top of mine and slides the wolf right back. He whispers, so quietly it’s almost inaudible, “Keep it close.”

There’s a look in his eyes, written on his sweaty and tired face, that convinces me to take it. I nod once and stand, walking to one of the Arcanes. I can’t tell them apart. But when it says, “Are you ready?” I know it’s the one who called Lucian “son.”

“Yes,” I whisper.

My left hand balled into a fist.

Chapter 45

An Ode To Nothing

LUCIAN

I stay, shaking and lying on this cold, hard ground as those around me begin to regain their movements. Wendy sits up, pulls a blade from her thigh, and stares at the pristine metal in disbelief.

She’s alive.

Aralia, Yuki, and Kai don’t move as the three who’ve regained consciousness look around at the room that’s now vacant of the Arcane.

“You did it,” Lilac says, and a smile wipes across her features. I pull myself up to sit.

---