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“Drown them all!”
The tap shrieked beneath the pressure, water exploding from its mouth. Behind me, the bath rose in a towering swell, the surface twisting into an ocean trapped within porcelain before it crashed against the walls in a deafening roar.
The door burst open.
“Lyra!”
Helion crossed the room, catching me just as my knees gave way. He hit the floor with me cradled against his chest.
The water sloshed violently before falling still, my power collapsing with me.
A strangled gasp scraped from my throat as heat consumed me from the inside out, each breath feeling as though I were inhaling molten glass.
“No... no.” His hands cupped my face, thumbs brushing away damp strands of hair. “Lyra, look at me.”
My vision blurred. His face swam out of focus while I was being burnt alive.
“Fuck.” His voice cracked, so quietly I almost thought I'd imagined it. “Are you trying to fucking kill yourself? You were already drained from healing!”
He tilted my head up, his breath brushing across my face.
Panic slithered its way through my haze when I realised he was going to kiss me.
“No.” The word left me no softer than a breath that turned into a strangled gasp.
I had no idea what I had been trying to do. I just wanted answers. I just wanted to save Rythos.
“Shh,” he soothed, thumbs rubbing circling over my cheeks in soothing arcs. “Let me take the pain away.”
I shoved at his chest, arms collapsing under the weight of the effort.
My eyelids grew impossibly heavy, threatening to carry me into unconsciousness.
“So, you’d rather die from burnout then let your husband kiss you?” He tsked. “Now I might make you beg.”
Darkness pressed in the edges of my vision, swallowing the room as the fire inside me burned brighter.
The agony was inescapable, yet nothing compared to the torture Helion had made me feel through the night.
“Never,” I managed to spit towards him, withering from the effort.
His dimples flashed, that devilish smirk making my weakening heart skip a beat as he leant towards my face.
“Then you will never see your monster again.” His breath washed over my lips. He was so close that one small tilt of my head and his lips would press against mine.
Rythos. My heart throbbed with a longing I didn’t know I possessed.
Remnants of Helion’s lust trickled into my skin like tiny grands of sand refilling an hourglass that so desperately wanted to be drained.
“We will feel your death, Lyra. The torture you felt was child’s play compared to the pain of losing your bonded. Rythos will know nothing but pain before his death, over a kiss.”
Panic clawed its way through me.
No.
I hated him.
But I wouldn’t die before saving Rythos from the curse.
