Her nod was barely perceivable. “I’m sorry.”
Falden cleared his throat, emotion choking him for the first time in thousands of years. “Maju paste or not, I choose you, my Bella. Your body is changing. Becoming more like mine. Lumerian. You will need an anchor for your power. I don’t have time to fully explain, but you will die without one. I would be that anchor for you, if you’ll have me.”
“How long?” she asked, coughing up blood.
“Forever. I would be yours forever, just as you would belong to me. Forever.”
Isabella nodded. “But…”
Falden raised their joined hands to his lips and kissed her softly. “I love you, my Bella. Please. Stay with me.”
She turned her head to face him, tears gathering at the corners of her eyes before flowing, unchecked, toward the floor. “Yes.”
He would have sighed in relief or leaped with joy, but her grip was weak, fading. “We must go through a Lumerian Yielding. We may both die if it doesn’t work. Isabella, you must yield all that you are to me—your heart, your mind, your soul, your life—and I must do the same for you. Together, we become something stronger. Good or bad, it’s forever. Do you understand? We live together. Die together.”
Isabella nodded. Yes. She wanted that. His words, his love would sustain her through this life or the next. She didn’t believe him. She knew she was dying. Her heart stuttered, fighting to beat. Her chest hurt. She could barely breathe, every bit of fresh air a struggle to claim and release. She was tired. So damn tired. Everything hurt.
“Are you hurt?” She knew he was bleeding, had seen the creature strike at him over and over, but he seemed to move like water. Fast. A storm on two feet. He had injuries, but that wasn’t what she was asking.
“I will heal. Do not waste time worrying about me.”
“Matthew?” The boy, her boy. Her little brother. Well, he wasn’t technically hers, but she’d claimed him, so he was hers now.
Falden’s gaze, already softer than she had ever seen it, deepened as he looked at her, wrapped his fingers tightly around hers and squeezed. “He is fine. He is with my Knights.”
“Knights.” How romantic. She was like a queen now, dying and bleeding in the final scene of a soap opera, a roomful of Knights wearing swords and armor standing around as if she were the most important person in the world.
“Bella. Listen to me. Stay with me.”
I already said yes.
“Bella?” Falden pulled her into his lap. She was not moving. Barely breathing. Her eyelids fluttered as the sound of battle dimmed around them, then faded to silence.
A shift in his field of vision and Falden looked up to see Dagan kneeling just beyond the silver sphere. “Do it now, Falden. She’s dying.” He lifted a vial. “I have maju water, but it won't be enough to save her if she won’t yield to you now.”
Falden understood. The maju water would heal her, but only if he could keep her alive long enough for the healing elements in the water and the crystal remnants running around in her body to do their jobs.
“Bella.”
“Falden.” Isabella smiled. She’d actually managed to say it out loud this time. And he was touching her, stroking her cheek like he loved her. Like she was beautiful.
Wait, he did say that he loved her, didn’t he? Had she imagined that?
“Bella, look at me.” She did, and Falden’s heart was in his eyes. “Do you yield to me? Will you stay with me?”
“Yes. Yes, I yield.” Her voice was sure. Confident, even if full of pain.
Yield. What a funny word. But then, he was an alien, after all. And she was dying. Maybe she hallucinated that, too.
At her words, one-half of the ancient runes on the blade began to glow with an eerie blue light. An arc of lightning lashed out from the pommel and struck Isabella in the heart, holding the connection between her body and the sword like a continuous flash of lightning. Her small body convulsed, arching back from the electrical current.
“Isabella,” Falden spoke the ritual words he’d never believed he would speak and willed the woman he loved to hear him. Believe him. Feel him. “I yield all that I am to become something more with you. I yield my heart to you. My mind. My soul. My life.”
The second half of the ancient runes lining the pommel lit up with the same eerie blue light. A second arc of lightning lashed out from the pommel and burrowed into his body, into his heart, holding the connection between him and the sword…and her. He convulsed, the electrical current running through his body contorting his muscles.
A third arc of lightning lashed out from the Lumerian crystal in the pommel and struck the top of the orb, spreading jagged fingers of lightning throughout the crystalline shell. The heat from the energy made the air vibrate all around them. Deafening thunder cracked within the sphere.
Falden and Isabella rose, as if by an unseen hand, to hover in midair. Forks of lightning wrapped around their bodies, binding them ever more tightly together.
Their spirits lifted. Soared. Connected, just for a moment of pure bliss. “Falden,” she whispered.
My Bella.
Isabella felt rather than heard the words. Falden! She reached for him with her mind. This was Falden. At once, scenes of another world flashed through her consciousness like memories. But he wasn’t hers. They were his. His loss. His pain. His love for her. His every sacrifice. She cried out.
I can’t live without you, my Bella. Don’t leave me.
It’s too late. Her body would not obey her. She could not speak, could not open her eyes. She was too weak. I’m sorry.
No. Yield. Show me who you are. Yield all that you are to me.
It hurts! She wasn’t sure if her thoughts would reach him as she screamed, her breath crystallizing in the frigid air inside the orb.
Bella, love. Give me your pain. I can
