Elsa’s POV
I kneel beside him, hands trembling, staring at Alex as he lies there, chest rising and falling with the steady rhythm of life I almost took from him. The bloodstained ground, the echo of battle, and the retreating footsteps of Lucas and his rogues press in around me, but I feel nothing except the hot, unbearable weight of relief and terror coiling in my chest. He is alive. He is alive because of Amelia. My heart twists, bitter and unwilling, as I realise that the one woman I have despised, the woman I have loathed for taking everything I wanted, saved him. She, with her calm, otherworldly hands and that faint silver glow, breathed life back into him when my arrogance and selfishness nearly destroyed everything.
I look at Amelia, kneeling, exhausted, the glow fading from her h
