Alaric
I hadn't told her the full truth about that night, and sitting there beside the creek, watching her face soften with the same delayed fear I'd been carrying, I understood I owed her considerably more honesty than I'd offered so far.
"There's something else," I said, and felt Rook go quiet and attentive beside my own racing thoughts, sensing the weight of what I was about to admit.
"What?"
"When Vance had that blade against me — when everything went dark, right before I lost consciousness entirely — I thought I was actually dying." My voice came out rougher than I intended, the memory considerably more visceral than I usually allowed myself to revisit. "And the only thing I could think about, the only thing that mattered in that entire final moment, was your name."
Marlowe's bre
