Page 75 of Princess of Bael
But the evidence existed beneath my skin.
I wasn’t feeling my own death. I was feeling the death of another.
Ezra.
My throat closed, my chest screaming in agony at the realization of what that meant.He’s dying.
No.
Impossible.
He wasmineto kill.
I forced my eyes open, noted all of my guards around me, and shoved off the ground to my feet. Everything swam before me, my vision refusing to acclimate to my sudden movement, but I had tomove, torun, to reach Ezra!
Yaz yelled something in my wake, telling me to stop.
But I didn’t answer to him. I answered to myself. To my soul. To mymate.
I crashed through the doors of the study and took off at full speed inside the home, not stopping until I reached the kitchens.
To find Ezra bleeding on the floor.
His wings were gone, disintegrated into ash.
But that wasn’t what captured my focus.
His torso did that.
And the holy blade sticking out of his chest.
Kay
A shiver raceddown my spine, the image before me eerily similar to the one I’d dreamt of for thousands of years. I’d fantasized often about this moment, the one where I watched Ezra die.
Yet the elation I’d anticipated didn’t come.
Instead, I felt depleted. Wilted. Dead inside. Alone. Miserable. Conflicted.Dizzy.
I tried to breathe, but my lungs rejected me.
I tried to speak and couldn’t.
I… I couldn’t stop staring, waiting for the moment of victory to hit me.
And nothing.
No happiness. No excitement. No sense of triumph.
I swallowed.This… this isn’t how it’s supposed to happen.I was meant to wield the blade, to stab him, to conquer my betrayer through my own strength. Not let someone else do it for me.
That had to be why I felt so empty inside, like I’d failed a monumental task destined for me alone.
“You can’t die like this,” I finally managed to say, my voice raspy and pained. My knees buckled, sending me to the floor beside him. “You are not dying like this.”
This was my fight. No one else’s. How dare they take this battle from me. He was my mate to punish, not theirs.
My eyes narrowed on the dagger slowly sucking the life out of my mate.
