"Vann," I whispered, my eyes stinging with hot tears. "You can't—don't leave me."
He wrangled me closer with a weak arm, dropping a kiss on my temple. "No choice, Hal. But at least I'm gonna die a hero."
He grinned, heartbreaking and full of life. Too full of life to die. But I hurt enough people to know it was a fatal wound on his torso; he'd die slowly and painfully. There was nothing I could do; I couldn't heal with magic that melted people.
Tears spilled down my cheeks, and Vann made a soft sound in his throat.
"I'm gonna blast this whole place open," he whispered in my ear. "And you're gonna run. You hear me? Don't hesitate, and don't look back. You go out there and live for me. The world is gonna be your oyster, Hal"
"I can't," I rasped, and then hardened my voice. "I won't. We can fight. We'll both get out."
Vann squeezed my shoulder, and I closed my fist around the locket, my hand shaking. "Alright, Hal. Just let go of me, and you can use your other hand to call up your power."
I swallowed and nodded, hating to let go of him but I didn't have much choice. He was right; I needed my other hand free.
But the second I uncurled my fingers, Vann threw himself forward, hurtling into the keepers. The other weapons had been ushered out of the room, so now it was only Vann and I alone with twenty keepers who wanted to hurt us.
Or kill us.
There shouldn’t have still been this many—Vann and I had both taken out several—but they came streaming into the room. My breath caught when six more arrived from the corridor on our right, drawing both their weapons and leaping at Vann.
"Secure the girl," someone commanded.
"I don't fucking think so," Vann growled, but his voice was slurring, and there was a trail of blood on the floor where he walked. "Go, Hala!"
"No! That's not what we agreed."
"Yeah, well, you're stubborn as shit. But I'm saving your life, whether you like it or not. Get out of here."
I shook my head, my arms quivering even as I dragged magic out of me, my hand lighting up fuschia. I could fight with him, I could—
I screamed when the keepers surged at once, blades sinking into Vann's body in a dozen places. No, no, no. No, they couldn't, not Vann, not my friend…
"Stop!" I screamed, rushing at them on weak, jelly legs.
Vann laughed, a cruel, dark sound. It was the first time he'd sounded shadowkind. And black, spiky magic erupted from his body, tearing through the keepers.
I nearly lost my footing when the black power blew apart the walls as he promised, bringing the building down around us.
But it wasn’t a victory. My heart crashed when Vann fell to the ground with a thud.
“Vann?” I asked, choked and afraid.
He didn't move. He didn't even twitch when the keepers landed around him, cut into pieces by his magic. I barely processed the severed limbs of my keeper. Any relief I’d have felt turned grey, numb.
Silence fell, sharper and colder than anything I'd heard before.
"Vann," I croaked, stumbling across the room and dropping to my knees beside him.
There was blood everywhere, pouring from every part of him, gushing from a thick, ugly cut across his throat. His eyes were closed, his expression slack and empty, not even a smirk on his face.
"Vann," I rasped, grabbing his bloody shoulders and shaking him.
Voices shouted in the distance, blurry and distorted in my fuzzy hearing. People were making their way through the rubble.
All of Vann's words came back to me, hitting my chest as cruelly as a knife.
Don't hesitate, and don't look back. You go out there and live for me.