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My anger flares hotter at his cryptic words. "Keep me alive? You've been ignoring me for months, Hendery. Don't pretend this is about protection." I refuse to let him derail me with vague warnings and pretty lies. I came here with a purpose. "I'm leaving tonight. Don't follow me. We're done." The words I've rehearsed a hundred times finally tumble out. They sound stronger than I feel, sharper than the jagged pieces of my breaking heart. Hendery goes very still. The silence stretches between us like a living thing, heavy and suffocating. When he finally speaks, his voice is so quiet I almost don't hear it. "If that's what you want." My stomach hollows out. I expected a fight. Expected possessive declarations and threats to chase me through every realm. I expected anything except calm acceptance. "That's it?" My voice cracks despite my best efforts. "You're just going to let me go?" He takes a step closer. His obsidian eyes search my face like he's trying to memorize every detail. For just a moment, he looks like he wants to tell me words that might change everything. His hand lifts toward my cheek, then drops back to his side. "There are things you don't understand about this court. About me." "Then explain them!" The words burst out of me. "You've had six months to explain, Hendery. Instead, you've treated me like a possession you're tired of. You disappear for weeks. You ignore me in public. You look at me like I'm nothing." His jaw clenches tighter with each accusation I hurl at him. "And Vespera," I continue, unable to stop now that I've started. "She told me you always return to your own kind. Is that what this is? You're bored of your human pet?" "Don't speak of things you don't understand." His control cracks just slightly, and his voice drops to something dangerous. For the first time, his pallor strikes me. Paler than usual, almost translucent in the moonlight. His hands shake slightly as they grip the balcony rail. When did he last feed? I crush the thought before it can take root. I can't let concern soften my resolve. A clock in the distance chimes eleven-thirty. Hendery straightens, and the cold mask slides back over his features like armor. "Go then. Leave before midnight. I won't stop you." My heart breaks and hardens simultaneously. I turn toward the doors, my vision blurring with tears I refuse to shed in front of him. My hand touches the door handle. My body roots itself in place. Every instinct screams at me to turn around, to run back to him, to forget every logical reason I have for leaving. I steel myself and glance over my shoulder one last time. Hendery stands at the balcony rail with his back to me, gripping the stone so hard it cracks beneath his fingers. "I'll leave after midnight." The words escape before I can stop them. "One last dance." He turns, surprise flickering across his features before hunger and desperation and fear take its place. We return to the ballroom together, maintaining careful distance between our bodies. The party has grown more chaotic in our absence. Vampires dance with wild abandon, their movements intoxicated and frenzied. The music plays faster, building toward some inevitable crescendo. A clock chimes eleven fifty. Ten minutes until midnight. Ten minutes until I'm free. Hendery pulls me into a waltz without asking permission. His grip on my waist is possessive and desperate, holding me so close that unnatural coldness seeps through the thin silk of my gown and into my bones. We spin through the crowd, and I let myself memorize everything. The way his dark hair falls across his forehead. The sharp line of his jaw. The obsidian eyes that watch me like I'm the only thing in the world that matters. He leans down until his lips brush against my ear. "If this is our last dance, little bird, then let me hold you until the world ends." Minutes pass like heartbeats. The orchestra crescendos. Masked faces blur around us. The clock strikes midnight. The chandeliers shatter. Glass rains down around us while the ballroom plunges into darkness. Screams erupt from every corner of the room, high and terrified and cut short. Shadows tear through the marble floor like living things, erupting in violent bursts. The air fills with the copper tang of blood and the acrid smell of dark magic. Vampires crumple around us, their bodies seizing while invisible magic paralyzes them mid-scream. The temperature plummets until my breath mists in the air. My body locks in place, frozen in Hendery's arms. A shadow blade materializes in the air before us, aimed directly at my heart. I watch it come, unable to even scream. Hendery shoves me behind him. The blade punches through his chest with a wet, tearing sound. His blood soaks the front of my gown, hot and thick and impossibly red. "No." The word tears from my throat while he crumples at my feet. I drop to my knees, pressing my hands against the wound even though I know it's useless. Blood pulses between my fingers, too much blood, pooling on the marble beneath us. This isn't real. This can't be real. But the blood pooling beneath my knees is warm and wet and impossibly red. Hendery's obsidian eyes find mine one last time. A figure steps out of the shadows behind me. Cold steel bites against my throat before I can turn. The blade drags across my skin, and my vision goes black at the edges, narrowing to a single point of light before even that disappears. I die staring at Hendery's corpse. . My eyes snap open. Air rushes into my lungs in a desperate gasp. My hands claw at my intact throat. No blood. No wound. Just smooth, unmarked skin. The corset is tight around my ribs. The crimson lipstick sits untouched on the vanity in front of me. The clock on the wall reads 6:00 PM.