Elyndra suddenly lowered herself into a slow crouch, Seraphina's hair falling forward like a curtain around her stolen face. She gripped the jagged ice shard in both hands, her expression calm and even serene as she aligned it with Seraphina's stomach.
"Time to erase the mistake she made," she whispered.
Lucian's heart stopped.
"Elyndra—!"
But she didn't pause. Totally did not hesitate as she drove the shard down.
Lucian lunged forward on instinct, pure, blinding panic, grabbing her wrist the same moment the shard struck. His sudden force shoved her hand harder than she intended, causing the shard to sink forward.
"NO!"
The tip brushed Seraphina's skin, just a graze, a shallow streak of red but right at that second Lucian felt the world tilt.
He saw the blood.
Her blood and probably their child's blood.
Something inside him snapped cleanly in half.
Without thinking, he slammed his palm against the side of her neck, freezing the nerves in a burst of desperate ice magic.
