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This is what happens to brave women. Strong women. If you’re worthy enough, they’ll bleed for you.

They’ll die for you.

I feel my throat working.

Please, not again. Never again.

And nother. My mate.

Life was bleak enough without my mother. But with Callie, with Callie, everything changed. Life was a thousand times sweeter than I could’ve imagined.

If she dies…there will be no surviving this.

I stroke her cool, clammy cheek, desperate to coax life back into her. She stares up at me, and there’s such brutal truth in her expression.

She knows what’s happening to her.

My heart is crushing. I almost can’t breathe through the pain of losing her. So much worse than my injuries.

This is not how I thought it would all end. But everything Callie is, everything that makes up her essence, is fading.

I run my hand over her bracelet.

Her bracelet! While she lives, she’s still bound by her vows.

I’m not above exploiting them.

“You willnotdie,” I command.

My magic flows out of me, and one bead begins to fade…then another and another. She draws in a shuddering gasp.

“Des, what are you doing?” she asks, breathless.

“Saving you.”

And by the gods, it’sworking.

Row after row of beads disappears.

Take them all, just bring her back to me.

The beads start to vanish slower and slower until, finally, they stop disappearing altogether.

Only a little over a row remains.

Her breathing is still as shallow as ever, and her wound hasn’t stopped bleeding.

I’m no healer, but if the magic took, then something should’ve improved.

But it doesn’t.

And then, with awhoosh, the whole thing reverses.

The magic slams back into my body, sending me backward, and the beads begin to reform one by one.

Nooooo!

Can’t complete the spell.