Page 77 of Necromance

“Lucien,” I breathed, my voice trembling. “That means…”

“I’m still cursed,” he answered before I could finish.

Tears filled my eyes as I reached up and touched his face. My hand no longer touched the warmth I knew. His arms were still around me, his breathsoft against my cheek, but he was fading.

His skin, once golden and warm with life, was paling to the hue of old parchment. His edges blurred, the dark coat he wore dissolving like smoke on the wind.

“No,” I whispered, my voice cracking as tears slipped down my cheek. “I don’t want this… I don’t want to be saved if it means losing you.”

His hand cupped my cheek, his finger brushing away a tear just before his fingers began to vanish.

“I will always love you, Mia,” he whispered, voice softer than a breath. “Even if time forgets me. Even if the stars fall from the sky. Even if the world burns to ash and no one remembers our names. I will find you in every life, in every shadow. I will love you forever.”

“Please don’t leave me,” I choked, trying to hold onto what was no longer there.

His lips ghosted against my forehead. “I don’t have a choice, my love.”

Then he was gone.

I collapsed to the floor, my arms empty, his warmth gone like a dream. The locket lay against my chest, cold and still.

And I broke.

I wept until my voice was hoarse, until the stones beneath me were slick with tears, until there was nothing left but the echo of his name in my throat and the shattering of a heart that had just learned what it was to be full.

CHAPTERTWENTY-SIX

The silence that followed was deafening.

It wasn’t just that he was gone—it was that something inside me had gone with him. Like the light had been plucked from behind my ribs. Like my very soul, even restored, had been hollowed out.

I didn’t know how long I knelt there, arms curled around nothing, the stone beneath me cold and unyielding. The dagger lay where I’d dropped it, mocking me with its gleam. I wanted to scream. I wanted to shatter something, tear the world apart until he came back to me.

But all I could do was grieve.

And then—I turned.

His body still lay on the stone slab, deathlike, too still, too pale.

I moved without thinking.I needed to be near him. Just once more.

I climbed onto the slab beside him, laying down with my head pressed to his chest, curling into his side like I could will time to rewind.

“Come back to me,” I begged, voice so broken it barely left my throat. “Please… I can’t—I can’t do this without you.”

I sobbed into the fabric of his coat, the tears spilling fast and hot. Everything in me cracked wide open. This was what true loss felt like. No hope, no magic left, just a girl broken beside the boy she’d loved too late.

But then—

Thump.

I froze.

I held my breath, not daring to believe it. And then it came again.

Thump.

A heartbeat.