Page 288 of Emylia

I didn’t cry.

Icollapsed.

Every ounce of strength bled out of me, just like it had bled out of him. My hands fell to the ground, slick and shaking. My chest seized, lungs refusing to work. My vision blurred, but I didn’t blink it away.

He was dead.

My uncle. My anchor. My family.

And I hadn’t saved him.

I couldn’t save him.

A sound burst from my throat—half sob, half scream, jagged and feral. I doubled over, shaking, fingers clawing into the blood-soaked dirt.

I felt Maalikai’s arms around me. Heard his voice.

But none of it registered.

All I knew was the silence in Thrainn’s chest.

The stillness in his hand.

And the hollow echo of my own heart breaking.

I buried my face in his shoulder, keening. “I tried,” I whispered. “I tried.”

Maalikai didn’t answer. He just held me tighter.

And I broke.

ChapterSixty-Four

Maalikai’s hand snaked behind my back, the other slipping beneath my knees. In one smooth motion, he lifted me from the wreckage—carrying me away from the destruction. Away from the ruin.

"It's okay. I've got you."

For a moment, I let myself believe it.

Let myself lean into the warmth of his arms, the steady beat of his heart, the lie that I didn’t have to move. That I could stay there—tucked into him, fragile, broken, carried.

But I wasn’t fragile.

Not anymore.

The fire was still inside me—burning low but alive.

“Put me down,”I said quietly.

He hesitated. “Princess?—”

“I’m not done.”

I slid from his arms, legs shaking, breath uneven—but I stood.

Because my mother was still out there.

Because I was still breathing.

---