Page 129 of Hunt Me

“I’m with you both.”

His resentment was set aside when Denalia summoned his attention with demanding coos. He lost himself in them, and for a moment, it felt like the future they’d imagined was within reach.

Matilda winced; he noticed immediately. “You’re in pain.”

She hesitated, then nodded. “More than I expected.”

“I’ll bring you something to ease the pain.”

He left the comfort of their bed, and each step felt more impossible than the last, like he wore boots weighed down with metal. Some time later, he arrived at his private study and retrieved the black-capped mushrooms from his desk.

“You’re doing it,” Ezra said, closing the door behind him softly. Luka nodded and silently boiled the mushrooms in a kettle from the fireplace. He sliced open his hand, and the blood flowed into an ornate goblet. “It’s not too late to turn back.”

“It must be done,” Luka whispered. “For the kingdom demands that I pay for the sins of my father.”

“You are not absolved, Luka. They are just as much your sins as they are his.”

Luka chuckled humorlessly and agreed. “Aye. This is true.”

“She will come back,” Ezra proclaimed, deep in his conviction.

Luka didn’t respond. Instead, he continued making the elixir. He moved to leave the study when he stopped in the doorway with his back to his friend. “Will you watch Denalia while I lay Matilda to rest?”

“Of course.”

“I may… I may be sensitive after. I will tell you to leave me be, but please do not leave me be.”

Briefly, silence fell between them.

“I swear it,” Ezra whispered.

Luka nodded and returned to Matilda, where she was singing a lullaby to Denalia, rocking her in her arms. He sat on the edge of the bed and kept his voice low so as not to disturb the slumbering baby.

“This will ease the pain, my Queen.”

“Thank you,” she said, taking the cup without suspicion and lifting it to her lips. She drank slowly, and when she handed the empty cup back, she sighed, settling comfortably against the headboard.

“I think it’s working already.”

He brushed his knuckles along her jaw. “Good.”

Luka pulled back his hand so that she didn’t witness how it trembled. She also missed the grief that flickered across his face that he smoothed away. She only saw their newborn daughter, who brought indescribable light into their lives. He leaned in and pressed a kiss to her temple, breathing her in—that precious human scent that he wouldn’t have the pleasure to indulge in again.

“Rest,” he whispered. “I’m right here.”

He noticed the changes within seconds. Her breaths slowed, her eyelids fluttered, and a faint, unnatural stillness crept into her limbs.

“Matilda?” he whispered.

She smiled faintly, eyes half-closed.

“Tired. I feel… so warm… everything feels… light.”

Light was wrong. Light meant she was slipping, and they had only precious seconds left.

Luka’s eyes glazed over as he took her hand in his. It was already cooling. That heat that warmed him better than any stoked fire could was dying out.

“Matilda!” he said again, sharper this time. She blinked up at him, confused.