Page 107 of Soul of Thorns
The Night Bringer has been free for five hundred years. The world hasn’t ended. What will he do once reunited with his mate?
I stare at the dagger still gripped tightly in my fist.
My choice is to doom the world to save myself and my mate.
Or kill her myself.
I would have to shove this dagger into her heart, here and now. If I don’t—they’ll win anyway. They’ll take what they want with nothing to stop them, with no bargains or deals to restrict their rule. I can’t keep Caelynn’s soul alive indefinitely.
Kill my mate or free the villain who terrorized us for the last decade.
“Your choice, princeling.”
I pull Caelynn from my chest and look down at her peaceful face, eyelids fluttering. She moans softly. For the second time, I hold the dagger tip to her chest, right at the red dot I’d created the last time. Her skin buckles. A tiny prickle of blood pools at my dagger point.
All of it—every ounce of grief and pain and fear—it all comes down to this.
It cannot end this way. This can’t be all there is.
A terrible desire stirs up in my belly. Dark ambition. Will I kill another to save her as she did me?
Could I make the same choice she did?
Am I as strong as Caelynn? Stronger? Am I even capable of the kind of selflessness this would take? I know what I have to do. What I must do, no matter the cost.
My muscles clench, arms pressing harder, chest heaving in sobs.
The ground rumbles with bitter laughter.
Choose.
Caelynn
Light and peace areall I know for moments at most. He holds me, comforts me. Loves me.
And then, the pain is back. Pressure on my chest, sharp talons carving into my heart.
