Percival's POV
The phone felt like poison in my grip.
A soul kiss. Over a damn phone line. With the same boy I'd written off as pathetic less than a decade ago.
"You know exactly what I want from you," Kaelen repeated, his voice carrying that maddening patience that made me feel like some wayward child. "The question is whether you'll give it to me."
Julian's stare burned into my back. His eyes were still too wide, his face ghostly pale from the protective runes that had backfired on him. Dried blood crusted his upper lip. He looked impossibly young in that moment. Vulnerable in a way that reminded me how much I had to lose.
Genevieve's face flashed through my mind. Her body lying cold somewhere in the darkness. Those bright eyes that used to challenge me, now empty and lifeless. The thought made my chest constrict with a pain I couldn't afford to acknowledge.
