Chapter 20 · This Time, Don't Let Me Die

"You're not doing it."

Kael's hand locked around my wrist before I could even think about reaching for my knife. The rune stone burned in my other palm, hot enough to leave a mark.

"Let go," I said.

"No."

"Kael, we don't have time for this."

"Then stop wasting it trying to die."

The rift screamed behind us, tearing wider with every second. The sound was wrong, like metal ripping through bone. The Keep's walls shook. Dust rained down from the ceiling, and I could hear soldiers shouting somewhere below, trying to hold a line that was already breaking.

"It's the only way," I said. "You know it is."

"I know you've been lying to me." His grip tightened. "Every reset. Every time you show up and pretend it's the first."

My stomach dropped.

"How long?" he said.

"Kael—"

"How many times have I watched you die?"

I couldn't answer that. Didn't even know the number anymore. Twenty? Thirty? More?

"That's what I thought," he said, and dragged me back three steps, away from the rift's edge.

"Stop it." I twisted in his grip, got nowhere. "You don't understand—