Page 174 of Fallen Nocturne

But I can’t. My body won’t obey anymore. It fucking refuses to breathe properly or remain conscious.

Arescaine!

Her voice fades. Everything fades. Even the pain in my chest. It dulls, then disappears entirely.

Rhianelle’s voice becomes muffled, then quieter, until there is only silence. The throne room blurs. Everything becomes unfocused and dreamlike.

Except Rhianelle.

She stays clear with her silver hair, lilac eyes, and tears falling like stars.

Beautiful.

She’s so beautiful.

My last sight and my last thought.

Chapter 23 Rhianelle

No, this isn’t real.

My hands reach for his wounds. I press my palms against them, trying to channel Anastarros’s blessings with everything I have.

“Please,” I whisper. “Please work. Please, please, please—”

But nothing happens. He doesn’t move.

The silence that follows is suffocating. I feel their eyes on me, on us, the weight of every stare like a hand pressing down on my chest. No one moves or speaks.

“Wake up. You have to wake up,” I say, shaking him. “You’re a Strigon. You heal.”

Bas presses his trembling fingers against Arescaine’s throat, then moves to his chest. He listens for a heartbeat that never comes.

His face crumples with the grief of a healer who already knows the answer but cannot bring himself to say it.

“The curse is gone,” he whispers. “Lilith broke it.”

Bas looks at me.

“Andras is human now,” Bas continues, his voice breaking. “Mortal, and the wounds—”

“Please make him better.” Great, heaving sobs shake my entire body. “There has to be a way. There is always a way!”

I press my hands harder against Arescaine’s chest and force more of Anastarros’s blessing through me. Golden light gathers beneath my palms, flickering weakly across his blood-soaked clothes.

“Come back,” I beg. “Please come back to me.”

The blessing comes, but it finds nothing to hold onto. It slips away like water through a cracked cup.

Rainer steps forward, his face pale.

“Let me try,” he says, his voice rough and exhausted.

“Uncle, no.” My gaze drops to the dark veins beneath his skin. “The poison is still inside you.”

“You can’t,” Shade says sharply. The wounded Grimsbane reaches for Rainer but nearly collapses from the effort. “Using the blessing will make the Nevrin spread faster.”

Rainer looks at me. I know that expression. He has made his decision, and nothing I say will change it.