Page 78 of Blood Marked

Not pain, Kael could handle pain. This was somethingelse. This was wrong. Violent. Final.

The magic that once tied them together writhed through his bloodstream like a thing alive andfurious, shredding itself from the inside out.

The bond wasangry. She’s dying, it howled. And she’schoosingit.

Kael pulled Selene into his arms, arms that shook so hard he could barely keep hold of her.

“Selene,” he rasped, pressing his forehead to hers, as if proximity alone could undo whatever was happening. “Don’t do this. Don’t fucking do this.”

Her body trembled in his arms, cold sweat soaking through her shirt, through his tunic, into his skin. Her chest rose in shallow, painful gasps.

“Stay with me. Please—Selene?—”

Her eyes fluttered open. And even now, evenlike this, she looked at him like she loved him. Like shestillloved him.

Kael’s throat closed.

After everything, after he’d rejected her in front of the court, humiliated her, pretended she was nothing—she was still trying to save him.

“Why,” he choked.

Blood slipped from her nose in a thin line.

“I had to,” she whispered.

He stared, heart hammering against his ribs, violent and helpless. “No. No, no, no. You didn’t.”

She smiled. Gods, that smile—it was barely there, broken and tired and sad. The kind of smile you give someone when you’re already slipping beneath the water, and you know they can’t save you in time.

“What did you do?” he demanded, his voice raw with disbelief.

“I broke it,” she said.

The words didn’t land at first. He blinked. But somethinginsidehim did. Something deep in his chest twisted, buckled. The hollow in his soul opened like a chasm.

“No,” he breathed.

Kael felt it, the tear, therupturewhere the bond had once burned bright and infinite between them. The second Blood Mark, the one they’d forged in the forest with magic and flesh andlove, had beenripped out.Torn free like sinew. Like a piece of hisheart.

It was still there, yes—but weak. Scorched. Flickering like a candle guttering in wind.

“You broke the Blood Mark,” he whispered, gutted.

She nodded. Or maybe her head just lolled in his hands.

“To save you,” she breathed. “They would’ve taken us both. The circle... it needed the bond to complete. So I broke it. It unraveled... just enough.”

Her hand lifted. Barely. Weak and trembling anddying. She touched his cheek. And Kael almost shattered.

This woman. Thisfucking woman.

He’d thrown her aside. Left her exposed. Played the cruelest political game he’d ever enacted—all under the illusion of protecting her.

He’d wounded her with words, silence, distance. And she broke herself apart to save him.

“You should’ve let me burn,” he whispered, voice cracked and hollow.

Her lips curved faintly. “I’d do it again.”

---