Page 78 of Luna's Forgotten Vow

Callahan's smile becomes darker. Twisted.

"No!" I roar, stumbling for her, fear shoving my body forward when my limbs refuse. The distance between us stretches like a nightmare and she lunges for me, hands outstretched.

So close...

Her body jerks and she hits the ground with a sharp cry. She's hit...I can't see where but there's blood.

Ronan reaches her seconds before I do and time stops as he wrenches her off the floor with brutal ease, her back slamminginto his chest, his arm around her throat, claws to her delicate, pointed jaw.

I freeze. "Ronan."

The desperation in my voice makes him laugh. His tongue darts out to lick her ear and Seraphina screams, kicking and thrashing against him, but she soon chokes and I assume he's cut off her air. "She never should have been yours."

"I'm right here! It is me you want dead! Not her!"

He chuckles. "You've ruined her for me. But I owned her first. And I can very well decide I no longer need her." His smile reaches his ear. "Here's to stealing something of yours. Forever."

He's lost it.

His arms tense and I move still, hoping, even if I know I'm not close enough to stop him from snapping her neck.

Fina's eyes find mine.

Callahan twists.

My roar deafens me and I can almost feel it. The very last breath?—

Blood explodes from Callahan's chest. He frowns, eyes dropping and I follow his gaze to his chest and the sword—the one he dropped earlier—tip bursting through, missing Seraphina's shoulder by a few inches.

Ronan gasps a painful breath and drops Seraphina. She collapses to the ground, coughing. I collapse beside her, pulling her trembling frame into my arms, still too stunned to look away from the dying man.

The blade twists, shoving deeper. He staggers, gurgles, disbelief etched on his face as he falls to his knees, choking.

Tova stands behind him, hands trembling, covered in blood. Tears leak from her eyes, her face pale, lips torn open in a silent, horrified cry as she watches him breathe his last. "I was pregnant."

His eyes seem to widen by the slightest inch before they hollow out, and he hits the ground. Dead.

Silence falls, so complete, I can hear my own heartbeat stuttering.

Tova falls by his side, ripping the blade free from his chest. She sobs, caressing his cheeks, his lips, his eyes, his jaw. Her cries become loud wails, and they carry across the halls long after Eric arrives to bring us home.

EPILOGUE I

SERAPHINA

Five years later.

He's late.

The knife snaps into the chopping board, almost cutting it in half.

Miranda hisses with displeasure. "Get out of my kitchen if you won't help!" she snarls. Quinn snickers from the island, stealing Landon's strawberry tart.

I glare. "Maybe I'd be more inclined to help if you weren't nagging me all the time!"

Quinn's mother and I don't get along very much. The first time I'd visited four years ago, she had taken to giving me the silent treatment and pretending I didn't exist. The year after that was all bark and no bite. Last year, I thought we'd bonded over mistaking the spiked punch for plain juice and getting so damned drunk, she had slept in my bed with Lilia while chirping away about how men were scoundrels and how no one should get married.

But she'd gone back to being insufferable the next morning.

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