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I scowl at him. “You’re an idiot if you think I’m afraid of him and not you. I love him. If you shoot him, you’ll have to shoot me too. Because I’ll?—”

“Ava, stop.” Damian’s voice is strained. “Let me… I have to think.”

“There’s nothing to think about,” the Sacred Light says. “Leave here now. You’ll be safe. You’ll be prior. But if you try to take the girl with you, you’re dead.”

The walls start closing in. My chest is hollow, like the air has been stolen from it.

“Who do you think you are—” my voice wobbles “—to command my life like this?”

The Sacred Light turns to me. “I don’t expect you to trust me, Bug. But I’m doing what’s best for you.”

Bug. In a whoosh, the ground has slipped from underneath me, and I’ve drifted out of myself. I’m hovering just behind my own shoulder.

He called me Bug.

Only one person in the world has ever called me that.

“Oh my God,” Damian whispers. He shakes his head once. Then again.

“What?” The Sacred Light asks.

Damian keeps shaking his head. His lips harden, and his eyes grow wide and blazing. “It all makes sense now.”

And I know what he’s thinking.

Even though my heart screams that it can’t be true.

The Sacred Light’s voice sharpens, slicing through the charged air. “What are you talking about?”

Damian exhales, but it sounds more like a laugh—dark and hollow. “I don’t know how or why, but I know what.”

The Sacred Light takes a step forward, pressing the gun against Damian’s chest.

But Damian doesn’t look anxious at all. His gaze hardens like steel. “I know who you are. And if you take her from me, I’ll reveal it. Right now.”

The Sacred Light stiffens. His gaze darts to me and back to Damian. “Revealing my identity is a treasonous offense.” He cocks the gun.

“No!” My piercing scream morphs into a ragged cry. “Please! Don’t!”

My heart is splitting in two, cracking wide. I’m about to watch the man I love die. Terror floods every inch of me—I can’t move, can’t breathe, can’t survive this if Damian doesn’t.

The Sacred Light’s head snaps toward me. For a second, everything is silent. Then his body sags, and he lets out a heavy breath. “Alright, Damian. You’ve won. Take her.”

A sob bursts from my chest, and I stumble forward. I wrap my arms around Damian as if he’s the only thing tethering me to the earth.

Because he is.

My whole life has been a lie. It was just confirmed, wasn’t it? This man—a supposed stranger to me—would have shot Damian had I not begged him not to.

In the end, only I had the power to stop him.

Because the Sacred Light is my father.

48

Damian

As the boat hums through the water, Ava sits beside me on the bench, wrapped in a thick, scratchy blanket one of the guards handed over.