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“I love you,” he mouths just as the clouds swallow him.

Silver wraps around my neck, my flesh burning and sizzling as he tightens the chain until I can’t breathe.

“You think you can hurt me?” I gasp, digging my claws into his arms so deep that blood spills free, splashing across the ground, and his bone grinds against my nails. “You just killed my mate.” I do my best for my voice not to hitch, but I can’t stop the sorrow blurring my vision. “I don’t give a fuck what happens to me.” But I’m going to make sure he is the one who dies first.

I wrap my hand around the chain, the smoke billowing from my burned flesh. I pull as hard as I can, more tears dripping free, my heart fucking ripped out of my chest.

I only just got him.

I had a week of happiness, and I’d relive that week over and over again if it was the only time I had with Leo. I’d live another two hundred years if it meant waiting for those seven days to come.

“He fought really hard. He really believed you’d save him, but he didn’t know how weak you really are. That consumption really fucked with your DNA, didn’t it? You’ve done nothing in the years Master has given us. Nothing.”

Memories of Leo flash through my mind. They play like a movie. His laugh and smile, his touch, they flood me.

They fuel me.

I curl over, using his weight to flip him over my back. I slam him so hard against the ground; the stone cracks. The force causes blood to gush from his mouth. His manic pride cracks and worry flashes across his eyes.

As fast as I have ever moved, I wrap the silver chain around his throat. Silver doesn’t burn him like it does me, but the chain can stop him from breathing.

I tighten it, wrapping the chain around my wrist and yank him into a seated position. His face is so red, his eyes seem to pop out of their sockets.

“You’re wrong. I’ve done the one thing many will never be able to experience.” And I will be with him and our child in the afterlife. “If Ceroes wants me dead, he can come kill me himself.” I keep tugging on the chain with so much strength that it cuts into his throat.

Blood spills over my hands. Snow runs red. He coughs, doing his best to breathe.

“People make a bad habit of underestimating me.” I yank his head forward, his nose nearly pressing against mine. “And it’s always a bad fucking mistake to make.”

His skin rips. The muscles and tendons stretch before ripping. His neck snaps, and I rip his head from his fucking shoulders, tossing it to the side. Something between a roar and a sob escapes me. I punch my way through his body, using my claws to slice him open.

Left. Right. Left. Right.

I alternate, swinging my arms in the air and slashing his body. Blood sprays into my face and arms, soaking my shirt. The wet squelches of death aren’t enough to stop me.

His heart fits in my palm, and I yank the useless organs from the hunter’s husk.

Holding it between my hands, I sink my claws in and rip it in half, releasing the agony in a long, tortured howl until every ounce of breath is out of my lungs and I have to inhale.

I fall backwards and slam my fists against the ground again. Over and over until the ledge gives way, his shredded body falling to the valley’s depths.

“Alaska!”

I turn to see Lorcan holding a very limp Leo.

“He’s alive. I caught him before he hit the ground. He only has a minute. And you’ll still be risking his life. He might turn.”

I struggle to get to my feet and race over to him, stumbling from the lack of energy. Carefully, I take Leo into my arms and set him on the ground, his head in my lap.

“Hey, Honeybee. Can you hear me?” I push his sweat-soaked hair out of his face, only for his eyes to flutter open and look at me.

“I found you in the afterlife,” he wheezes, his palm reaching for my cheek.

“No. No. You’re alive. I have you.” Tears drip from my face and onto his lips, the bruise on his face fading from a deep purple to his beautiful golden glow.

I’m sure I look like a nightmare to him, drenched in the hunter’s blood.

“I knew I’d find you,” he smiles, but it’s the tired kind, the one that tells me he is too close to death. “In every life. I’ll find you.”