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Through the gate, I descend one more time into the shadow-filled tunnels of this forsaken place.

Across the bridge and into the den of the man who lifted me to nobility…

not knowing the blood of nobles might already be in my veins.

Will I see Kaelis again? Do I even want to?

A part of me aches for what could have been had the fates smiled more kindly upon us.

But I’m not sure if that part would ever—could ever—win out.

Fate puts that theory to the test.

Kaelis stands in my path. I stop in my tracks, blinking, as if he’s some specter I’ve summoned with a thought. He doesn’t vanish. Merely stares.

Perhaps he knew I would come here. But even if he did…the likelihood of him finding the path I’d take in this vast monstrosity of a structure is next to none. But here we are, bathed in moonlight through cobweb-laced windows, at opposite ends of a short hall. His dark eyes meet the embers of mine.

My fingers twitch with magic. But no cards rise from my deck. He doesn’t move either. The air is still, and time itself holds its breath.

I should have admired him more when I had the chance.

I should have taken in every delicate detail of the crimson stitching.

Of the silvered thread that holds fast the buttons of his jacket.

The way his hair, now an oil-slicked purple in the crystalline light, shadows his eyes.

I should have, shamelessly, enjoyed him with reckless abandon more often while I still could.

Should have damned all my morals and qualms and given in to wickedness and indulgence before knowing too much ruined whatever chance we would have.

He curses under his breath, looking away. The trance is broken. It’s almost like permission.

I go to leave. Kaelis moves simultaneously. I freeze in place. He halts as well. Run, part of me whispers. Stay, a treacherous little voice implores.

“I’m not going back with you.” I break the silence.

“You can’t now.” Kaelis moves once more. The wide strides of his steps swiftly eat away at the distance between us. “You made sure of that.”

“I’m not letting you take me to Halazar.”

He comes to a stop before me. The air between us is instantly charged. I stare up at him, searching the anger that furrows his brow. The pain that’s alight in his eyes.

“I swore to you, time and again, that I never would,” Kaelis says softly. He truly means it.

I inhale slowly, wishing my chest would brush against his. Fighting the urge to grab him, I say, “You really are going to let me leave?”

“If I must.”

“You know I can’t stay…not with you.” My voice has dropped to a whisper. Though the conviction doesn’t leave it.

“I know.” Yet, he reaches for me, and I don’t move away.

Kaelis’s hand hovers just off my face. His knuckles brush my cheek, and his attention falls to my mouth.

Fingertips glide down, pushing back the wide neck of the shirt to expose the swell of my breasts still straining against the ragged corset top.

I can’t stop an inhale and the slight arch of my back that accompanies his motion.

Even as the world around me crumbles, my body betrays me. I lean in to him.

His fingers glide around my waist, and, for a second, my breath hitches not from his touch but from fear that he felt the card. But Kaelis’s focus remains on me. The way he looks at me is as if I am the most magnificent thing he’s ever beheld. As if the world begins and ends here.

“You have everything you need from me. We’re over.” I don’t know if I’m talking more for myself or for him.

“I know,” he repeats. But this time he doesn’t sound convinced. I open my mouth to emphasize it, but he speaks before I can. “We never were anything to begin with. Never could be anything…not in this lifetime. But give me one last time.”

“What?”

“Let me kiss you one last time when you know me as I am. When you see the man beneath the cards and the names, the crowns and the power.” Even as he’s asking, Kaelis is leaning in.

I do nothing to stop it.

The kiss is agonizingly slow. Our bodies finally meet not with a crash, but with a defeated sigh. His other hand comes to rest on my face, holding me in place with a featherlight touch when the rest of the world couldn’t even with threats and chains.

I take what fate has offered and indulge in this final moment.

I savor the taste of him as his tongue slips into my mouth.

His scent envelops me like his arm around my waist. The fire within me collapses into ash.

The moon blinks out of existence and, for a moment, there’s nothing but darkness.

Cold, unending, glorious darkness. A place to hide from everything I know and everything that has yet tobe.

My hands glide over him, seeking purchase on his lapels. I hold him tighter. The fire returns. It isn’t until he pulls away that I realize my fingers have wrapped themselves around his throat, the pads digging in lightly.

Kaelis tilts his head to the side, amusement alight in his eyes. “Doit.”

I could. He’d let me. There’s a madness to that glint.

“I’m a relic of a bygone era,” he continues. “A cursed man with no future who shouldn’t have existed in the first place. If anyone will be my downfall, it’s you.”

How many times did I swear to be as much? My fingers tremble but don’t move. They’re little more than a caress on his ghostly pale skin.

“No, I won’t kill you yet.” My fingers uncurl, one by one. I release him, even though I don’t know why. I ease away.

“If not now, then when?” A slight smirk tugs on his lips. I hate how much I love it.

“When I’m done with you.” I turn on my heel, beginning to walk away.

“You’ll never be done with me,” Kaelis says with all the arrogance in the world. “I will haunt you from this world into the next.”

I don’t answer. I don’t even look over my shoulder. The echo of his words emphasizes their point. Once I’m out of view, I rest my hand on my side over Death. He won’t have control over any world, so long as I carry this.