Lucian's entire body went still as he stared at Seraphina's closed eyes.
She wasn't responding.
Her head rested limply against his arm, her hair brushing his wrist, her skin frighteningly pale. The faint warmth she always carried, the warmth he thought would never leave her, now completely gone.
He tightened his hold on her instinctively.
"Don't joke with life," he whispered, the words trembling out of him.
His breath hitched and his lips trembled, "Seraphina, open your eyes."
Nothing. No flutter of lashes. No weak inhale.
Nothing.
"Seraphina," he tried again, louder this time, his voice cracking as panic shoved its way up his throat. He shook her gently, once and one more time, his hands trembling uncontrollably.
"Seraphina, look at me! Open your eyes!"
Her body shifted in his arms, but only because he moved her, not because she really did.
