Page 26

REMY

My Guide tosses commands, then attempts to stumble away.

I follow, unwilling to abandon the reassuring sound of her pulse. “Where are you going?”

Iris.

Iris, Iris, Iris.

I can’t forget her name.

I’m full of holes, but I remember the sweetness of her blood and the soft touch that shields me from the dark.

“Go gather zombies for Vhex to burn,” she says wearily, pushing forward as stubbornly as one of the undead. “I have to call for reinforcements.”

“Ah. Command may be unlikely to send help.”

“What? Why?” She stops hard, allowing me to catch up.

My mental fog clears as I bump into her back.

Salivating, I inhale her irresistible scent. “You’re bare under that skirt.”

“Whose fault is that?” she snaps.

“Mine, I hope?”

“Remy. Remington.” She whirls to pinch my jaw. “Duke Azrid. Why wouldn’t the Northern Legion send help? Isn’t this all your house’s territory?”

I cover her hands, relaxing into her touch. “ Mmm .”

“Work with me here,” Iris murmurs, her magic sliding through my veins.

Her guidance slowly pieces together my memories, but I don’t want to remember so many lifetimes of blurred-together battles.

Her coolness brings back pasts I need to forget.

A recent nightmare stabs to the front.

Standing in the suffocating darkness of the Azrid crypt, I wear a child’s body for the last time. Faceless elders take turns touching my shoulders with bony hands.

Die well, Remington.

True rest has come.

“I was sent here to die,” I say calmly.

Her fingers freeze at my jaw. “What…does that mean?”

“The vampire bloodline can’t grant true immortality, but it allows us to be reborn.” As long as any shred of soul remains in the family crypt, we can regenerate our childhood body.

Waking to a closed coffin lid.

Again and again and again.

I lean into the comfort of her fingers. “I’ve been revived from death countless times over hundreds of years. Now the essence of my soul is depleted. As I can no longer be re-born, I was sent to the Farguard and tasked to die my final death the way a responsible Azrid does. Alone.”

Her heart quickens.

It’s worth living until now to feel her being moved.

“There are hundreds of transcendents assigned to the Farguard. The Northern Legion won’t abandon them, let alone the humans living in the border cities all through these mountains.”

Sweet Iris.

“Faervaine can no longer protect its fringes.” The imperial is failing in every one of my fractured memories. “The Farguard is the final resting place for the empire’s most unfavored. Petty criminals, scorned Guides, and Sentinels who offended the wrong officials.”

“Not everyone. Vhex is a?—”

“A duke?” I chuckle. “Ask him why his family sent him to the Farguard. Well. The family he hasn’t killed.”

Her blue eyes flick back and forth, rapidly processing.

“Am I talking to the real Remington right now?” she asks carefully.

“More or less.” I cast through my head and frown. I can only access scrambled pieces of the past. A fact here, a law there, a flash of my father stabbing my sister through the heart.

He gave all his children their first deaths. He only loved the ones who didn’t resurrect.

They were human.

The rest of us inherited the vampire bloodline.

We became undying monsters.

Just like him.

More bloody memories gnaw from the fog that grows when I think back. I breathe cool, fruit sweetness from Iris’s skin and let everything go but her soul. “I don’t expect the clarity will last.”

“You don’t say.” Iris takes my hand and tugs. “Come on. You walk. I’ll worry about explaining everything to the legion.”

As we near the main building, I wrap Iris in shadows. Her spiritual touch makes my magic flow impossibly smooth.

No pain.

Even my thirst is banked. I press her to the brick wall and wrap us in shadows, sealing off the rest of the world.

What unexpected bliss.

She even makes me wish this life could last.

“Remy. We don’t have time.”

“Give me one moment.” I inhale her jugular.

I have no bitterness or desire for revenge. At the end of an endless war, all I crave is the peace of her skin.

She was so obviously made for me.

I nose beneath her jaw.

Her chin lifts as her breath quickens.

“We’re going to fight,” Iris says, breathy but firm.

“What if I tire of fighting?” I tease a fang against her artery.

“You’re a Sentinel.” She pinches my chin again, dragging me face-to-face with her cold fire. “Most of us only get one life. I’ve already wasted enough of mine, but I’m still a Guide. I’ll never stop trying to claw you back from the dark. Try fighting with me instead of closing your eyes.”

Ah.

Her coolness soothes my spirit, and her body heat stirs my blood.

“My eyes are open,” I whisper. “I’m yours.”

“Sure you are,” she mutters, pushing me away. “Take me to your messaging room.”

“This way.” I take her wrist, enjoying the slow pace of walking with Iris at my side.

I don’t give a bloody fuck about the fight.

This may be my last life, but it’s the first time I’ve ever felt alive.