Alchemised

by SenLinYu

Like a star, he was glittering and ice-cold from afar, but when the space was bridged, the heat of him was endless.

“You get to have this. You’re allowed to feel good things. Don’t be alone. Have this with me.”

“I should have known—the moment I looked into your eyes, I should have known I would never win against you.” She gave a small smile, struggling to stay awake, afraid it might all fade away if she did. “I’ve always thought my eyes were my best feature.” “One of them,” he said quietly.

“You’re mine,” he said against her lips, his fingers sliding along her throat, tangling in her hair, holding her fast as he dragged her nearer.

“You’re mine. You swore yourself to me. Now and after the war. I’m going to take care of you. I’m not going to let anyone hurt you. You don’t have to be lonely. Because you’re mine.”

She was locked in the dangerous embrace of Kaine Ferron, and it felt like home.

“You’re a far better person than I am. This world doesn’t deserve you at all.”

“Don’t worry. I’m always going to come back to you.”

“Are you saying that the Undying are just a power source for Morrough?” Helena said slowly. “Yes! That is what he called them. Undying. Not living or dead.”

“If one person’s actions are enough to damn everyone, then the gods are terrible, and Sol is the worst of all.”

She was half indignant when she arrived, and then forgot, because before she was through the door, Kaine had her in his arms and was kissing her as if starved.

“Would you go now, if you could?” His eyes seemed to ripple with heat. “With you, I would.” She forced a smile. “Then we’ll go together. After the war.” She gripped his hand and pressed it against her chest, letting him feel her heartbeat. “When the war is over. We’ll run away somewhere no one knows us. We’ll disappear—forever.” His eyes flickered, but he smiled back. “Of course.”

If he couldn’t hide her, he would hoard her to himself as much as he was able to. She’d fallen for a dragon.

“The Eternal Flame is not going to hurt me if you fail an assignment. They aren’t going to torture or endanger me to punish you. I’m not a hostage. I’m in this war because I choose to be. I’m not fragile. I’m not going to break. Please.” She brushed her thumb over the arch of his cheekbone. “Believe that about me.”

“I’m going to take care of you. I swear, I’m always going to take care of you.”

“I—I’m pregnant.”

“You’re a vivimancer,” Helena said.

“I’m just—” She scrubbed her eyes. “I’m so tired. Everything I do feels like I’m delaying the inevitable, saving someone one day so they’ll die in a worse way tomorrow. I wish I’d never become a healer.”

There was a piece of metal buried in the centre of her chest, splitting her sternum.

“It’s a war, Kaine. People die. Given your personal death toll, you should know that better than anyone else. You know that I’m not going to prioritise my survival over everyone else’s.”

“Because I have warned you, if something happens to you, I will personally raze the entire Order of the Eternal Flame. That isn’t a threat, it’s a promise. Consider your survival as much a necessity to the Resistance as Holdfast’s. If you die, I will kill every single one of them. Given that the risk to their lives is the only way to make you value your own.”

She couldn’t imagine herself without him. She didn’t think she’d even exist anymore.

“What exactly is it that you think I do with all my time? I kill people. I order other people to kill people. I train people to kill people. I sabotage and undermine people so that they will be killed, and I do it all because of you. Every word. Every life. Because of you.”

“You are so much more than what the war has done to you.”

“Do you see my scars that way?” he finally said. “When you look at me, are they all you see?” She flinched. “No.” “Well.” He met her eyes. “I don’t see you that way, either. You’re mine.”

“You are. It doesn’t matter what happens to you, you will still be mine.”

I love you.

I love you. I will always love you. I will always take care of you.

“I heard that Althorne died.” “And Ilva.”

“Someone killed a lich with the obsidian,” Helena said. “Do you think maybe he—the lich—died? That Morrough can’t bring him back anymore?” Kaine was silent for a few moments. “Seems you’ve found a weapon to kill us,” he finally said.

“You know I would if I could. I’d run with you and never look back.” “I know—” Her voice broke. “Don’t die, Kaine. You can’t leave me behind.”

“Mine. You’re mine,” he said as he kissed her. “Always.”

Every day she wondered if she was working towards her own doom and Kaine’s destruction.

“I found you after a bombing. I had to watch them cut you open, trying to get the shrapnel out. You nearly died so many times on the operating table, I lost count. If you’d been an inch closer to the blast, that shrapnel would have gone through your heart. You want me to set a bomb, I will do it, but you will not touch it. Do you understand?”

Someday, she promised herself, someday I am going to love him in a moment that isn’t stolen.

“You’re mine,” he said almost against her lips. “Mine. You swore it. Your Resistance sold you to me. I’m not going anywhere without you. And if anyone touches you, immortal or not, I will kill them.”

Apparently, a living body won’t accept another soul; it’s like an infection, the body tries to burn it out. That’s why they came in sick with brain fevers, screaming and clawing at themselves, saying, ‘Get him out,’ until they died.”

“Now she’s the mother of your child, and instead of getting her to safety, you’ve kept her in isolation for months. And right this minute, you have every reason to think she’s been captured, that she’d be one of the first people they’d kill, but instead of running to her, you’re here with me. Luc would never do that.” “Luc, what have you done?” Sebastian was staring at him in horror. Helena asked, “Who are you?”

“You were the Necromancer,” Helena said, realising. “The one who built the cult in Rivertide. After you made that Stone, you called Orion here, but when he saw what you’d done, he tried to kill you.”

“I am Morrough.”

that’s—that’s why Lila’s pregnant. You’re making yourself another descendant. That’s why you wouldn’t let her go to Novis: because you’ll need that baby next.”

Sebastian hesitated for less than an instant, and Luc’s knife sank into the base of Sebastian’s throat.

“Luc is an animancer?” she said in shock.

In the same motion, the obsidian knife sank to the hilt into the left side of Luc’s chest, in the place under the arm where the armour was weak.

He said nothing else. When she looked up, his eyes were unseeing, the dawn reflecting in the empty blue.

Before she could react, a large hand gripped her head, and everything went dark.

“The war is over,” he said. “The Undying have taken the city, including your Headquarters. The remaining Resistance factions are cornered; if they don’t surrender, they’ll be buried in rubble by the day’s end.”

“Because if you do, I’ll stop—everything,” she said. “I’ll leave, and I won’t come back. Just like you want, if you’ll help me get Lila Bayard. Whatever you want. Anything you ask. I’ll do it, I swear.”

“I blew my cover getting the Bayard girl for you.”

“I’m building a bomb. I need to blow up a laboratory.”