My magic slides against a dense knot of tissue and blood, then… I feel his heart stop. … Silence, horrible unbearable infinite silence, shatters in my ears. The ribbon falls away, and I imagine it, suspended in the slow death of time, twirling to the floor, limp and lifeless as it collapses into a weightless curl. My ribcage cracks, my heart imploding and leaking out on a crimson flood of all my mistakes. I collapse on top of Nadir, pressing my cheek to his chest, my hands fisting in his shirt, as the forest echoes with the agony of my broken, never-ending scream.
