Page 24

24

DANTE

S he’s gone.

Not just stepped-outside-for-air gone.

Gone.

No note. No scent trail. No shadows slipping down the hallway. Nothing but cold sheets and silence.

I’m up fast, heart slamming in my chest like it’s trying to warn me before my brain can catch up. I check the window—open. Barely. Like she didn’t want to leave it that way, but couldn’t quite shut it either.

She did say goodbye. I feel it in my bones. But I don’t remember hearing the words. Not how. And that’s the part that fucking kills me because I can’t remember if it was part of a dream or actually happened. Was I that tired?

I press my palm to the pillow she used. Still faintly warm. Still carrying that barely-there scent of night and ruin and something that could’ve been home.

"Shit."

I sit back, drag both hands down my face, and let myself feel the spike of helplessness for exactly three seconds before I shove it back down where it belongs.

Panic doesn’t help her.

Action does.

My notebook’s on the table, half-covered in old bounty notes and sketchy coffee rings.

I tear out a fresh page and start making a list.

People I can call. People I might be able to trust. People who might not immediately sell us out for political leverage or old grudges.

The list’s shorter than I’d like.

Tamsin. She owes me. Big time. Knows her way around Veil fractures and doesn’t ask too many questions—so long as you pay up front and bleed a little.

Sasha, Fire-born. Rogue elemental with a temper worse than mine, but if I tell her the Veil’s cracking? She might come out of hiding. Might. If she’s not already dust.

Eli from PEACE. Risky. But he’s not a sellout like the rest. Hates the council almost as much as I do.

I underline his name twice, then circle it.

Nico. Fae-blood smuggler. Total asshole. But he knows the old magic, and I need someone who’s not afraid of Seraphiel’s name. Might be the only one who wants to see him fall.

I stare at the list.

Not enough. But it’s a start.

I tap the pen against the table, breathing hard.

“If I find out you left to protect me,” I mutter under my breath, “I’m gonna lose my damn mind.”

I knew this was coming.

She was quieter yesterday. A little distant. Like she’d already decided something but couldn’t say it out loud. I should’ve seen the signs. Should’ve locked the damn window, warded the place tighter.

But she’s too good at slipping away. Too good at thinking she has to carry it all alone.

Not this time.

I don’t realize how long I’ve been sitting there until my hand starts to cramp around the pen. I toss it down, stretch my fingers, and lean back.

But the moment I close my eyes, I feel a pull behind my ribcage. A hollowness that wasn’t there before. The bond. It’s stretched too far. Too tight. And suddenly, I’m so fucking tired.

My limbs feel heavy. My chest aches. The room swims, like the shadows are slipping sideways just out of view. What the hell?

I try to stand, but my knees give. I barely make it to the couch before I collapse. My head thuds back. My eyelids drop like bricks.

“Shit,” I whisper again, voice thick. “What the fuck…”

Everything starts to blur. The walls. The ceiling. The echo of her laugh I swear I still hear when the wind cuts just right.

And then I see her standing above me.

Hair cascading like night itself. Runes glowing faint beneath translucent skin. Eyes that catch every secret I’ve ever tried to bury.

“Liora…?”

I don’t know if I say it. Or think it. Or dream it.

But the moment her name forms on my lips, the darkness swallows me whole.