Dark Promise by Annika West

51

My heart squeezed. I cared about that. It mattered that he was crying. This was my dude. The person that I loved. It mattered that he was sad.

“You’re dying,” he said, pouring another healing potion down my throat. “You’re not allowed.”

That’s a very silly thing to command, I wanted to say. Of course an immortal CEO like him would try to order me to stay alive when most of my blood was on the floor.

His red irises shivered and then flooded his gaze completely.

“It’s a selfish thing of me to ask, Aster. You’ve had nothing but pain from me. I’ve given you nothing to convince you to stay with me. But you must live. You must. Think of your parents. Of Willow and August. I need you to take me to another haunted house. I want you to fall asleep next to me very night. And there are far too many desserts I haven’t made you.”

Stop it, I wanted to tell him. You’re making this too hard.

“You have to try!” he roared. “Otherwise, I will find a way to follow your soul and drag you back, kicking and screaming. Do you understand? Don’t make me do this the hard way.”

I wanted to laugh. Or roll my eyes.

Instead, a new pain filled me.

I don’t want to go.

Tears flooded my eyes as I clutched to my mate with trembling fingers.

I don’t want to leave you. I haven’t even learned how to kick your ass yet. It’s not fair. It’s not right.

As a last-ditch effort, I dove into my soul room.

My magic was there. Weak. Fading.

I’m not scared of death anymore. But I’m terrified of leaving him behind.

I have to fight.

But there wasn’t any magic for me to fight with. There wasn’t an enemy I could properly face. It was me against my own mortality.

That’s not a fight any Cut was expected to win.

You’re leaving him. Just like he feared you would.

As my blood drained, so did my magic and strength. That’s just the way it worked.

Despair filled me. And rage.

This couldn’t be where things ended. This just couldn’t fucking be the end.

I felt the golden warmth of the mate bond in my fading body. The fae mark on my cheek throbbed. The tether on my wrist tugged at me.

Stay with me, I begged, grasping at the feeling of those bonds. Those things connecting me to this life and the people I cared about.

I raged through the numbness of dying, clutching to these useless bonds. Pulling and pulling and pulling until —

A tiny sliver of lightning crackled through my veins, making me startle in my delirium.

Hux poured another healing potion into my mouth, ordering me to drink. When he saw the change in my expression, his snarl intensified. The red light in his eyes burned hotter.

“Tell me what’s happening. What are you feeling?”

“Not… sure…”

He cursed and pulled out another bottle. This time, it was vampire blood. He opened it and poured the crimson liquid onto my abdomen.

It wasn’t enough. We both knew that. But I didn’t fault him for trying.

It’s what I would do if the positions were flipped.

The electric jolt had evaporated. Mostly. All that was left was a small, pulsing charge in my veins.

It has to be the healing potion, I reasoned. That’s the only explanation. I’ve never been this close to death before, so that could be why it feels different.

Healing potions just felt a certain way when they stitched you up from the inside. This wasn’t the same, and I still wasn’t convinced the potion was the cause.

Pulse. Pulse. Pulse.

The tiny electric heartbeat continued to thrum.

The bonds burned. My cheek, my wrist, my chest.

Maybe it was my own personal alarm system. They all knew I was dying and were trying to let me know.

What lovely manners.

As I gazed into Hux’s grief-filled stare, as he held my limp body, he said, “I love you, Aster King II. You are my mate, and I don’t accept a reality in which you are not at my side. You are everything that matters.”

Tears fell down my cheeks and then followed that horrible trail into my ears. I hated that. As if crying wasn’t bad enough, now I had aquatic mufflers.

“I don’t,” I gasped, and then choked out, “want to leave.” My vision blurred and dimmed.

There wasn’t much time left.

I dug my nails into Hux’s skin, trying to hold onto everything.

Him.

Consciousness.

The magic in my own bonds.

He held me, forehead pressed into me. “Your parents are coming. They’ll find a way to heal you. Hold on, Aster. You aren’t going anywhere. You are staying with me.” His voice broke.

With a final surge of strength, I reached up and touched his cheek. Maybe one day I’d reincarnate into a cat and infiltrate Vulcan Corp., fulfilling my duty of sabotaging and irritating this man for all eternity.

“I thought,” I said with a painful inhale. “I told you… to stop —” Another gasp and wince. “Lying.”

His damp, black hair flopped onto his forehead. His teeth were gritted and bared in agony.

The tether, birthmark, and mating rune sizzled as I clutched to them. The tiny pulse of electricity was stronger than my heartbeat at this point.

Holding onto those bonds was the last thing I could do, and I did it with every ounce of desperation I had left.

Which, to be quite honest, was a fucking lot.

That’s me.

Aster King II.

Desperate motherfucker to the very end.

At least I knew how to stay on brand. You know? Someone better put that on my stupid gravestone.

That’s all I’m saying.

And forget those useless flowers. I wanted a bouquet of donuts every week placed on my plot. Otherwise, my spirit would be forced to come back and haunt everyone.

The strangest thing happened next.

As I pulled onto that electric pulse, harder and harder as I crept closer to death, my soul room crackled and fizzled. It was like a burnt-out, soggy match sparking again.

Completely unnatural.

Hux stiffened, his hands tightening around me. He was shouting, holding me, panicking, but I couldn’t hear.

Gasping as new pain lanced through me, I twisted in his hold.

This can’t be good.

Flashes of awareness battered me. Willow, August, Oz, Hux, me. We were all connected. A new wave flowed into me. Adair, Mom, Dad, Marigold.

These are the people connected to me by magic.

It was so clear to see the links. My parents birthed me and raised me. Marigold screwed with my soul room. Willow and August were my closest friends. Hux was my other half.

The flood of their thoughts and emotions poured through the electric pulse, but this time, I latched on.

And somehow, someway, power flowed into me.

I need this. Give me the energy. Give it to me.

My head spun. I was only half-conscious at this point. Even if I had the magic to do something, I wouldn’t even know what.

I can’t heal myself. Not with my mortal genetic makeup.

It wasn’t enough.

Energy boiled in my veins, but it wasn’t going anywhere.

I couldn’t use it.

As my thoughts faded and I slumped in Hux’s arms, I had one final kernel of gratitude.

At least I’m not alone.