He had lived in the body of a twenty-year-old for a long time now. Never aging. Never growing weak. It was the ill-begotten prize of his betrayal. But today, he felt every year, hour, and minute of his one hundred and seventy-odd years.
Black spots exploded in his vision and he wobbled. Fever was raging through his body, his skin coated by a layer of cold sweat. He alternated violently between feeling unbearably hot and bone-chillingly cold. Sweating and shivering in equal measure. With every breath, the Revenant poison moved closer to his heart. And this time, Allyra wasn’t here to save him.
Allyra.
He hoped she was safe. That she had escaped. That she’d live a happy life.
In a life filled with the wrong decisions, Jason was sure that he’d finally made the right one—for her.
It was probably the last decision he’d ever make in his life. He was dying. His fever-drenched mind had conjured a physical manifestation of Death. A dark, hooded creature, crouching in the corner, waiting to take him. He ought to be terrified, but Jason found that he welcomed it. He embraced it. In death, he would no longer be able to hurt anyone again. He would never hurt her again. A hundred and seventy years, and he finally understood what it meant to care for someone more than himself. In Allyra, he had finally found a moment of selflessness. A moment of real grace.
The wall in front of him seemed to move, making him wonder if it was yet another figment of his fevered mind. Eventually, he realized that it was disappearing into a doorway. Jason clenched his jaw and tried to stand up a little straighter.
The outline of someone appeared in the doorway, though his vision faltered, and he struggled to make out the details. Slowly, she came into focus. Short red hair and pixie-green eyes. Eva.
“What do you want, Eva?” Jason said, his voice weak and hoarse with disuse. “Or should I call you by your real name?”
It was barely a taunt, but he was proud of it. It was proof that he wasn’t broken. That he couldn’t be shattered, no matter the torture they subjected him to.
“Eva’s fine,” she replied smoothly.
“What do you want?” he asked again.
Eva leaned against the wall and crossed her arms. She shook her head sadly.
Sadly.
Jason wanted to laugh. He really was losing his mind—Eva wasn’t capable of such emotion.
“Why are you doing this, Mattie?” she asked.
“Don’t call me that,” Jason snapped back.
“Mattie?” Eva questioned innocently, “It’s your name, isn’t it? The one your family called you. Your mother and father. Your brothers.”
Jason gritted his teeth but stayed silent.
“So really—why are you doing this, Mattie?” Eva asked again. “Your stubborn silence changes nothing. This is no more than a momentary setback. And all this pain? It really doesn’t become you. I hate seeing all this beauty broken and twisted by agony.”
She straightened and closed the distance between them, her movements graceful and fairy light. She ran the tips of her fingers down the side of his face, barely touching his skin before brushing the palm of her hand against his chest, pushing lower and lower down his body until her hand rested between his legs.
He shivered involuntarily, the memory of years and years of desperate longing fighting to the surface of his mind. She smiled smugly at his reaction, her green eyes flashing like a cat’s.
“I see your body still remembers,” she whispered against his ear. “This doesn’t have to end, Mattie. We can still be together. Just tell him what he needs to know and you can have me once more. I know you still love me—that you’ve always loved me.”
Jason let out a bark of sarcastic laughter, the force of it sending a shot of pain through his chest. “Love? It that what it was?” He shook his head. “No, I think a terrible mistake would be a more apt description.”
A flash of anger crossed Eva’s face, marring her effortless beauty. “Don’t lie, Mattie,” she said tightly, “it’s unbecoming.”
“I’m not lying,” Jason replied, his voice stronger now. “I was young and stupid, and your beauty blinded me. You were a wildfire—greedy and hungry, burning and consuming everything before it. I was caught up in it, in you. But there’s nothing left in me to burn anymore. The funny thing is—it’s finally allowed me to see you for what you really are. A scared little girl, terrified that people will never notice her, much less love her.”
Eva punched him, the hollow sound of it echoing from the stone walls. His ribs cracked under the unnatural force of her blow. He doubled over, coughing and spluttering. Blood filled his mouth, thick and bitter. He spat it to the ground, drops of it hitting her shoes.
“Shut up,” Eva hissed angrily. “You have no idea what I am.”
Jason laughed again, blood gurgling up his throat. “Except I know exactly what you are. Maybe I’m the only person who’ll ever know. And face it, Eva—you can live a hundred lifetimes, and you will still be the girl a man is blinded by. Aroused by. But never the one he truly loves.”
Eva joined in his laughter, but hers was an ugly, bitter sound. “And I suppose you think that Allyra is the one you truly love?” she asked. “And that your silence now will somehow buy her love.”
She stood in front of him and grabbed his face roughly, forcing him to look into her eyes. “People like Allyra will never fall in love with you. She is light and you
