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“Pretty sure that fight was mutual and, as it happens, more fun than I’ve had in months.” He grins. “Wanna go again?”
“You don’t remember who I am, but you’re still just as stubborn as you’ve always been. Just as dauntless.”
Parry. Riposte. Like a call and a response.
CALL AND RESPONSE
How can you miss something that feels like it was never really there? I’m starting to understand how, because the idea of leaving Nick tonight makes something in my chest burn.
Im so sick
“Bree?” A quiet voice interrupts us. The Black girl behind Ava and Zoe is my height, a little older than me, with long box braids and round golden glasses over her mask.
OMG theyre all coming together
“A demonic great Gatsby,” I murmur.
I get this reference now after Broadway
“Any Collectors who remain interested in these items will need to submit to an appropriate, additional level of security screening—and remain on-site, here at Penumbra, for the duration of the weekend.”
YES a weekend of Nick and Bree
“Look at you. Incredible. You’re a gorgeous, powerful, violent little enigma who would stab me in front of all these people just to make a point.”
Deeper in the room, set on a separate raised platform, is a single large, curtained four-poster king bed.
One bed one bed one bed!!!
“Nothing’s going to happen to Bree,” Nick interjects, voice traveling across the room. Zoe’s head perks up. “You sound real confident about that, white boy.” Nick’s mouth quirks. “I am.”
Go white boy go white boy go
“Yes. He’s one of mine.”
“Yep.” He sighs. “We need to practice touching each other.”
Exactlyyy
But when I look back at Nick, he’s gazing at me as though I’m exactly who I should be. Like I am complete. Nick looks at me as if, no matter what’s been taken from me, in this moment I am more than enough. As if I am so much that I could overwhelm him if he’s not careful.
Our infinite is over and done, not just here at Penumbra, but outside of it too. When Zoe and I leave, all the doors I’m foolishly teasing open with Nick will close.
Nooo
“I mean, I can’t speak for you, but that boy is down bad,” Zoe says. “Bad bad.”
“Besides, your love life remains unmatchedly messy. First it’s the Golden Boy, then it’s Grumpy Wizard, and now it’s back to the Golden Boy, but instead of a normal, happy reunion, you’re accidentally brawling in the basement? Girl.”
“And the power structures they wield the most—racism, misogyny, patriarchy—thrive in places like this, especially when money’s involved.
Yup
“Something could have happened to you.” “We won’t tell Sel—” “It’s not about Sel,” Nick whispers, voice harsh. “It’s about me. And not leaving you behind again.”
FINALLY
“I’m drowning in you, Bree. I shouldn’t want to. I should fight it. But I can’t.”
“So drown.” He groans—and we break against each other, mouths crashing. A wave of heat, lips, teeth. His palms capture my jaw, pulling me closer. A lifeline. An anchor. Skin to blessed skin.
FINALLY
Benedict’s proposal is one I think you will enjoy! He has suggested that, instead of using the final two slots of the weekend for him and his fiancée in which they answer five questions each, he will take on the burden for them both—and answer ten!”
Oh no
“If that were to happen and I’m killed by a Shadowborn while I have his spirit,” he says with a quiet sigh, “the Legendborn cycle can stop… without killing you.” “By killing you instead?” This time when I pull away, he lets me go. “No!”
NO
“If you tell me to stand back, Davis, I swear to God—” His mouth quirks. “Just gonna ask you to start sending your root to the floor, my king. Let’s extend a friendly hello.” “Flaming welcome mat,” I say. “I like it.”
I’m also your friend who is currently very valiantly resisting the urge to hug you.” A weak smile tugs at my mouth. “Actually, I could use a hug from a friend right now.”
Will and Bree<3
“A demon powerful enough to remove a fragment of your soul is powerful enough to destroy it. We don’t know the King’s long game. You need to prepare yourself for the possibility that this is it.
Oh no
“I used to think that the Order as a society was broken, but watching you navigate it, knowing what they’ve done to you because of it, being away from it myself, showed me that it’s not broken. It’s working exactly as designed. A wheel, drenched in hate and control, churning.
Books are political
I didn’t realize how much I’d been holding until he offered to take it.
Ugh Team Nick
Letting go and holding tight. Falling and climbing. Forgetting and remembering. All at once.
Nick and Bree
As the world dawns, we claim each other’s mouths. Call and response. When I finally whisper, “And if I want to burn it all to the ground?” His answer is a quick grin against my lips. “My blade is yours.”
Even when you choose not to fight, you turn the tides. If you ask me, that right there is the soul of a king.” “Soul of a leader,” my father adds. “A hero,” says Nick, eyes fond. “An icon!” Zoe shouts, grinning.
“Trust me?” Nick says, stepping forward to squeeze my hand. Love. Trust. Both a practice, I decide. “Okay.”
“You say that, but I have excellent eyesight and when I look around”—Nick casts his gaze wide across the empty stone patio, voice wry—“the only king I see here is Bree.”
NICHOLAS
As I gaze at him, every feeling I’d started to nurture between us at Penumbra blossoms fully in my heart. I feel him in my heartbeat. Feel him in my hope. Call and response, deeper and richer.
YES
While I had longed for Nick, he had yearned for me.
SICK
I thought it was always the King calling me, his signature sometimes that of Erebus and sometimes that of his true form, but… When Sel’s fingers open, my mark pulses. When Sel’s hands contract, my mark dulls.
NO WAY
Then, there is only silence and shock and heart-shattering agony… because Selwyn Kane is dead.
SURELY NOT
Then… his spine straightens, his head snaps forward— And his eyes open—bright,
Oh thank God
Only then does the truth rise in full between us, like an unknown, unknowable silent secret now spoken aloud: like Excalibur, the crown recognizes its rightful heir… and Selwyn Kane is the Shadow King’s son.
Holy hell
