Page 107 of Tethered Fates

My eyes connect with Teagan’s. I promise him with a single look that he’s going to be okay. But he isn’t scared for himself—he’s terrified for Kai.

I pull my leg up and slam my foot down on the hard, curved surface, grunting with the effort.

Ramy claws at the barrier.

Luc rams his shoulder into the dome again and again, each impact ringing through the room.

Elio slashes his palm with a knife, then discards it so he can draw out his blood in long whips to slash against the surface.

Even Bran attacks the shield.

Thin fissures spread out, but the dome holds.

“SUMMER, DON’T!” Vidar roars.

“I will have my revenge!” Summer screams. Blood streams from her nose, the eclipse ringing her irises flickering. “All this has to be worth it. It has to! It will! The demons will pay for what they stole from me!”

She slips an obsidian blade from her boot.

“Take my heart!” The bones in Vidar’s pounding fists snap. His knuckles split with wet pops. White shards pierce through his skin as he keeps up his relentless hammering.

The blade trembles in Summer’s grip. “This…this won’t be for nothing.”

“Please! Summer, not Kai! Take me!” Vidar begs. Pleads. “Take my heart! He’s my everything!”

The second the words leave his mouth, I know it’s the wrong thing to say.

Summer steadies herself. Steadies her resolve. “The demons took my everything.”

She pulls her elbow back, her hand now sure and aiming the deadly point at Kai’s heaving chest.

Vidar’s fist punches through the glass, skin ripping as shards flay his flesh. His broken, blood-slick fingers reach for Kai, and though Kai can’t speak, tears spill down his face as his eyes tell Vidar everything—I love you. I’ve always loved you.

Summer thrusts forward.

And she drives her dagger into a heart.

Chapter Thirty-Six - Teagan

Long before I heard Sen’s name pulse along the soulmate bond, before he ran me over and I knew he was the love of my life, long before that—was Kai.

My big bro.

To me, his scars are beautiful. To me, he is the strongest person alive. I love to annoy him and make him laugh. I love that he still uses the unicorn pencil I gave him years ago. I love when he hugs me, even if I don’t always hug him back. I love that he showed me being quiet could still be powerful, and gave me art as a way to express myself.

I love him.

I strain against Summer’s spell until my teeth ache and my blood vessels burst. Until even my bones break and the pain is so excruciating, I go blind from it.

I fight against everything she is because Kai is so much more, until—when the point of her dagger drives towards him—I’m free.

Free to push him away and for that dagger to go into my chest, through my ribs and into my soft heart.

There are screams, there is pain, but it soon fades into a single point and then…

Nothing.

Chapter Thirty-Seven - Sen