Chapter 77. The Blood Between Us

Levi’s POV

The world is too quiet. Rain washes over the ruins, making them all clean. The silence feels wrong. Too heavy. Too final.

Louis lies where he fell.

His chest doesn’t rise. His eyes are closed. His skin is turning pale beneath the rain.

Lennox kneels beside him, still and silent, one hand fisted in Louis’s shirt like he can hold him here by sheer will.

Lotus hasn’t moved since the light faded. She’s on her knees in the mud, her hands limp in her lap, her face turned toward the sky. The magic that once lit her veins is gone. It has burned out, leaving nothing but the hollow look of someone who’s lost everything.

And she has. We all have.

I press my palms to my eyes, but it doesn’t stop the image of Louis gasping once, his hand reaching for her, then going still.

“Say something,” I whisper, voice cracking. “Anything.”

Nothing.

The rain seeps through what is left of my armor and soaks into my bones. The bond b