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“We don’t have a choice either.” I speak the words through stiff lips, refusing to acknowledge any other possibility. Filippa might know much about this place, but she does not know everything. Moreover, this time is not like last time. I am not Frederic, and I do not need a spell to find Michal. I am a Bride of Death, and even if I weren’t, I would do anything to find him—anything, and no one can ever change that. Not Filippa, and certainly not Death.

Unbidden, my hand rises to my chest, and I rub the place where Michal remains. Part of me thinks I can still feel him there, waiting. “Iwillpull him out,” I say fiercely—to Filippa or to myself, I do not know—“or I will cross that river myself. I cannot go back without him.”

Filippa slows to a halt at the riverbank, her expression inscrutable, before inclining her head in acknowledgment and pivotingtoward the river. I join her with renewed purpose, still rubbing that spot on my chest.

It’s called Le Lien Éternel.

The longer two vampires feed from each other, the stronger the bond grows, until...

Until?

Until it becomes irrevocable.

What Michal and I share cannot be broken. Irrevocable means final. Eternal means forever.Michal, I think, and my human heart splinters.

Michal, I think, and a brilliant white cord appears in my hands.

I stare down in wide-eyed confusion, inawe, before curling my fingers around it. Though I feel its weight in my palm, I still close my eyes before opening them again, convinced it’ll disappear. It doesn’t. The cord remains, loose and unspooled between my fingers like—like a ribbon. I test it curiously, rolling it between my thumb and forefinger, and gasp when the cord tightens.

When ittugs.

It flashes brighter at the pressure, unraveling away from me and toward—my eyes widen even further, and my mouth parts in understanding. Toward theriver. I take a tentative step forward before wrapping my wrist around it, pulling experimentally until the cord snaps taut.Tootaut. Filippa turns to stare at me as I stagger forward, attempting to reel in the cord. It drags me closer to the river instead, and she tilts her head in confusion. In concern.She cannot see it.

“Michal,” I breathe, and with one last, hard tug—my lungs seize.

Suddenly, I cannot breathe at all.

The cord strains in my grasp, immense weight from the other end propelling me forward. And I cannot stop it. Though I dig my heels into the grass, into the mud, I only slip faster. More than that, however—I still cannot breathe.Throat burning, I crash to my knees; I grip the tether with my free hand and lean backward with all my might, but still it pulls me onward. It carries me away from Filippa, who bends down to snatch at my forearm now. “This isn’t funny, Célie. Whatever you’re doing, stop it!” She squeezes harder, attempting to pull me upright. “Stopit, and get up—”

Though I open my mouth to answer her, no words pass my lips—no scream either. Instead river water rushes up my throat in a torrent, spilling onto my chest. Choking me,drowningme. My human lungs shriek in agony as I collapse forward onto the muddy bank of the river. The water keeps coming, however. It flows from my body likeIam the river, yet my body burns like I’ve caught fire.

“Célie!” Panicked, Filippa drops beside me, still tugging on my arms, but the tether continues to yank too, to drag me closer and closer to Michal.To Michal.I can sense him now, so close to me.So close, so close, so close—

“No,no,” Filippa pleads, her voice breaking, and only moments ago, I would’ve wept with relief at that brief glimpse of her humanity. It means my sister is still in there somewhere—hiding, perhaps, butalive—yet I cannot think beyond the darkness edging my vision. Distantly, I realize I am drowning.

Gasping and choking through the water, I manage, “He—lp.”

Another wave spews from my mouth.

“Célie!Célie!” Filippa slides her arms under my shoulders now, wrenching me back to my knees and holding me against her chest.She doesn’t know what to do, however. She cannot let me go, cannot evenseethe cord to sever it. “I amtrying,” she says despairingly, “but you—you have to show me how to—what to—”

But the garden is rapidly fading now, dimming to fathomless black around me. My last conscious thought flares indignantly. What astupidway this is to die—to survive everything,everything, only to drown on dry land the moment I become human again. And everything has darkened now, growing darker and darker still—

A flash of silver sparks across the haze. Familiar, breathtaking silver. I focus on it until my vision sharpens, and Filippa’s pleading voice fades in and out of range. “Comeon, Célie—” Her arms tighten around my chest. “You willnotdie, you stupid, stupid girl—”

Though I should try to answer her, I cannot do anything but stare at Michal—Michal, who is rising from the river. Michal, whose hair breaks the surface first, then his onyx eyes. And—oh God. He is still more gorgeous, more devastating, than should ever be possible.

Spluttering now, I feel the last of the water leave my lungs as he throws a hand onto the bank and claws his way through the reeds, through the mud and the rocks and the lichen. Claws his way back tome.

I lean back into my sister’s chest, bracing my heels in the ground. “Pull,” I tell her desperately.

Filippa does as I say, even as she cranes her neck to see my face, to search it anxiously. “What is goingon?”

“Pull.” I wrap the cord around my hand, again and again, to maintain the tension as Filippa drags us both to our feet, anchoringus against Michal’s weight.We’re almost there.We’re so close—

The harder we pull, the faster he rises, until—gasping and soaking wet—he wraps the cord around his fist and his eyes lock with mine. With one last mighty tug, Filippa and I throw ourselves backward, and Michal heaves himself on the grass with a groan, gasping and coughing, his entire body shuddering.

Finally, Filippa loosens her hold, and my heart leaps because it’s over.It’s over.Without another cognizant thought, I sprint for him, but a second masculine voice stops me short: “Fuck,” Dimitri says, pulling himself ashore by Michal’s ankle before collapsing beside him. “Could that have hurt anymore?”