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I wasn’t sure if he’d heard me. His eyes were closed, and that tingling feeling was rushing through me, like a tidal wave, consuming my entire being until it exploded in my fingers, which were now resting on Lucas’s chest.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Lucas

The pitch darkness was consuming. Heavy. Endless.

I was falling… or maybe sinking. There was no ground, no sky, just an infinite void pressing down on me, smothering me. My body felt weightless and yet impossibly heavy, as though the darkness had become a part of me, pulling me deeper.

The sounds of battle, the searing pain of Damien’s blade… it all seemed so far away now, like a distant memory I could barely grasp.

And then I heard her voice, the only voice that could pull me out of this dark, deep hell of nothingness.

“Lucas, stay with me. Please...”

It was faint at first, a gentle ripple in the overwhelming silence. But as the words reached me, they grew louder, sharper, cutting through the void like a blade of light. All I could do was listen to them, grab onto them like a drowning man grabbed onto a life preserver belt.

“Lucas! Don’t you dare give up on me!”

Annika.

My light. My life. My love.

I tried to move, to speak, to let her know I was there, but my body refused to obey. My lips weren’t my own. My tongue was numb. My mind was a blank.

I was trapped, caught in the liminal space between life and death, unable to reach her.

But her voice didn’t falter. It refused to let go. It kept pulling me back to herself.

“You hear me? You’re not leaving me, Lucas. I won’t let you.”

Her words were fierce, commanding, filled with a desperation that made something stir deep within me. And then I felt it. A warmth spreading through the darkness, faint at first but growing stronger.

It started at my chest, where Damien’s blade had torn into me, a tingling sensation that chased away the pain. Slowly, the warmth spread, filling every corner of my being, pushing back the cold, oppressive void.

Her touch.

I could feel it now, her hands pressed to my chest, trembling but resolute. And with it came a glow, faint but undeniable, sparking behind my closed eyes.

“Come back to me,” she whispered, her voice breaking.

The light grew brighter, more insistent, until it consumed the darkness entirely. My body surged with energy, the warmth transforming into a searing, almost unbearable heat. I gasped, the air flooding my lungs in a painful rush, and my eyes snapped open.

The first thing I saw was her face.

She was above me, her hair wild, her eyes red and swollen with tears, but filled with a fierce determination that took my breath away. Her hands were still pressed to my chest, glowing faintly, and as the light faded, she let out a shaky sob.

“Lucas,” she breathed, every note filled with love.

I stared at her, my mind struggling to catch up. The pain was gone, replaced by a strange sense of clarity, as though I’d been pulled back from the brink by sheer force of will. By her will.

“Annika,” I managed, my voice hoarse and weak.

She let out a laugh; it was half a sob, half relief. Then, she cradled my face in her hands.

“You scared the hell out of me,” she whispered, her tears falling freely now.

I reached up, my fingers brushing against hers, solid and warm and real.