Page 84 of Too Dangerous To Die

She wears me like a crown.

My bones. My blood. My voice.

And when she turns to Rhaegar, it’s with my eyes. My mouth.

But none of me inside.

The look she gives him is soft, seductive. Her hand brushes hair from my—her—face. Lips curve. And I feel every muscle betray me, every nerve obey her command like they were always hers to begin with.

“You poor, broken creature,”she croons, stepping over the shards of the artifact.“She doesn’t understand what you are, Rhaegar. What you could be.”

He doesn’t move. Not yet.

But I see the tremor in his jaw. The doubt she’s always known how to exploit.

Her smile deepens.

“She thinks she loves you. But she loves the idea of what you could become with her help. Not what you are. Not the ruin inside you.”Her hand lifts—to his cheek this time—and my stomach churns with helpless rage.

“I love that ruin. I made it.”

Rhaegar’s wings twitch.

His shoulders square.

But he still hasn’t spoken.

And that’s when she leans closer—Ilean closer—and whispers the final blow.

“You could have everything. Her body. My power. Eternity bound in flame and stone. Say yes. Say yes, and I will unmake even the gods for you.”

The chamber breathes in.

And Rhaegar moves.

He doesn’t flinch.Doesn’t hesitate.

His hand, still bleeding—tightens around the artifact’s jagged remains.

He looks into my eyes.

Not hers.

Mine.

And I feel it—that last thread of connection between us. Fragile. Flickering. But real.

Then he raises the broken artifact high over his head.

And slams it into the altar.

The sound is wrong.

It doesn’t echo.

Itsplits.

Magic detonates outward like a dying star, the runes on the altar screaming in a dozen forgotten tongues as they unravel. The chamber howls. The floor beneath me—her—fractures. Light bleeds through the cracks like golden veins. A scream tears from my throat?—

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