Page 58 of Claimed In Darkness

ZEPHIRAN

S he is gone and I do not accept it.

The world is silent, the battle forgotten, the blood beneath my knees no longer hers but mine.

I am breaking as I have already lost so fucking much.

Her body in my arms is still warm. There’s a tiny, miniscule warmth radiating from her chest.

That’s what shatters me most.

Her lips are still parted like she is about to breathe again and her hands are still curled around my wrist, as if she is still holding on.

But she is too still.

My mind refuses to accept it.

My hands shake as I drag her closer.

Her head lolls against my chest with her scent still there.

Her lips still taste like mine as I kiss her.

She is NOT fucking gone.

I barely register the hands on my shoulders.

A voice. A distant sound.

"Zephiran—"

No.

I do not hear anything except the silence where her heartbeat used to be.

This is not how it ends.

I am choosing her over everything.

Over my freedom.

Over my fucking life.

Over the entire world if I have to.

It will cost me but this is something I must do.

Only I can do.

I cut my palm open.

Deep.

The pain barely registers as my blood drips onto her lips.

Dark. Red. Endless.

And I speak something forbidden.

Not just words, but someone older and darker.

The spell that binds and damn a being to the abyss for all eternity.

I will give whatever it takes.

Even myself.

The power surges as it burns through me.

It feels like dying and becoming something else entirely.

The ground trembles and the air thickens.

And then she gasps, a sharp, ragged sound escaping from her lips.

Her back arches and her fingers dig into my arms.

Her lungs drag in breath and I collapse on her.

She is alive. I brought her back.

I am never letting her go again.