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The love of my life was dead in my arms. Our children were dead around us.

They’re dead. They’re all dead.

A pathetic, heart wrenching sob quaked through me as I lifted her to my chest, hugging her as tightly as I could, as though if I sobbed her name enough times, if I screamed loud enough, she’d awaken and tell me to fuck off.

That was what she did every other time I woke her.

“Please come back,” I whispered into her hair. “Please, Véa. Please heal.”

Silence.

I sobbed again, chest closing so tight that I feared I’d stop breathing. My throat constricted, every muscle in my body locking up. I held her tighter, begging and begging that this wasn’t real.

For three hundred thousand years, she’d been the center of my universe. Our children were right behind her when they came along, but she’d been my other half for all but a fraction of my life.

She was the breath in my lungs and the fire in my blood. She was the light that shined on the darkest day. She was who held me when I cried, and who lay her head on my chest when she couldn’t get through the day on her own. She was the savior to a broken world. She was my partner, my best friend, my other half.

And she was gone.

Half of me was gone with her.

“We’ll find them.” Lux’s voice quivered as he walked into the room. “We’ll—we’ll fix this.I’llfix this. I swear I will, Nix—”

“Like you fixed it when they killed our sister?!” My eyes shot to his, wide and furious. “You expect me to believe a word that comes out of your fucking mouth?”

“I had nothing to do with this, Nix—”

“You hadeverythingto do with this.” I lay Véa on the ground and lapsed to my feet. “You started this when you destroyed our worlds. You’re the reason this happened. You—”

“They’d been planning this far before that! I didn’t know they were rising against me. Don’t you think I would’ve done something about it if I had?! They just saw an opportunity, and they took it!” There was still pain in his expression, but fury was there now too. “I wouldn’t have done this to her. It doesn’t make sense. She’s a ‘chraobh. We’ll need her in the war, and—and I care for her. She’s your world. She—she’s Véa. I-I wouldn’t have taken her from you. I wouldn’t have—” He cut himself off, pointing to my babies. “I love those children. I never would’ve hurt them, Nix. I—”

“Oh, you wouldn’t?” I snorted a humorless laugh. “That’s comical coming from you.”

His jaw tightened, teeth pressing to a line. “I understand that you’re angry, and you want someone to blame, but itisn’t me, Nix.”

Maybe it was. Maybe it wasn’t. But I wasn’t—

“No!” Lux lapsed to me, grabbed my shoulder, and lapsed again.

We were on the other side of the room now. Where I’d been standing was Michael. He held a blade upright, as though he’d been preparing to stab me in the back.

Like a fucking pussy.

Hoisting the ore blade from my hip, I landed before him.

He vanished.

Lux was at my back.

Supposed he had mine, and I had his.

“Do you fucking believe me yet?” he spat.

No. Yes. Maybe.

I didn’t know, and I didn’t fucking care right now.

My priority was stabbing that little fucker, disabling him, and doing whatever was needed to find out where my wife and children’s souls were.