Ivy’s body had never looked so still.
She wasn’t dying. He could hear her heartbeat, feel her shallow breath against his chest. But something about the way she slumped against him… the way her lashes fluttered, her head tilted limply back…it unsettled him instead of stirring concern.
Axel knelt with her in his arms, checking carefully.
She was warm. Her scent…soft like ash roses after a storm…curled into his senses, tugging at a place in him he had buried long ago.
He brushed the hair from her face, fingertips barely grazing her skin. She looked almost fragile. Touching that sigil should have burnt her… but it didn't…
As she lay in his arms,Axel couldn't help but notice,she looked too much like her.
Too much like Seraphina.
He swallowed hard. “Don’t do this,” he murmured to himself
