Page 115 of Nocte

For him. To punish him.

“They say that she killed him and then corrupted you. Dragged you off into the mortal realm. Made you her accomplice. Cassius has demanded you back, but it is out of his hands, of course. The council wants you both. Oh, how badly they want you both. They’ve even held off on their little ceremony of the ages, or whatever the hell it’s called. They’ve called it off, until they’ve brought you both back.”

To punish.

To kill.

To steal away and hurt.

“Never,” Caspian tells me.

Never will they have us again.

“Now go,” Altaris demands. “Go now. Before the sun rises?—”

“Her,” Caspian hisses. “Save her.”

“I can’t… But you can,” Altaris says. “You give her your blood, or you let her die. It is your choice to make. Your sin to commit—just keep that in mind. You know the risks.”

A sin. One even Cassius wouldn’t let me commit.

“Now, I told you where to go,” Altaris snaps. “Go!”

He does, my Caspian. He takes me in his arms and carries us out into the night.

He carries us away, where the council and no one can ever find us again.

CHAPTER45

Caspian

Dirty fae. Stupid fae. My fae.

I have her.

I hold her tight, and I have her. She is mine. Mine.

But I am hers—a bargain I didn’t ask for. Didn’t want.

Need to have.

I am hers, and her possession is stranger than mortals and their so-called art. Stranger than any prize or reward Cassius could wave before me.

Her heart is stranger, still. Even bloodied and gaping and pumping noisily, I can see it. Hold it. But even if I reach into her chest and crush it in a fist, I won’t have it. It won’t be mine, not truly.

Only she can give it to me. In those frantic little whispers of my name. In the way she grabs me tight. Begs me. Pleads.

To save her again, I will have to break the rules.

Bend the rules.

Ignore the rules.

Because here, in this mortal realm with her, no other rules matter.

So I rip my wrist open with the tip of a nail, press it to her mouth, and make her drink.

I command her. Beg her. Insist she does it.